Exploding On The Felt

Hollywood Casino Part Deux

2012-02-14T15:44:00.002-06:00

Played another short session today. Three hours.

Had my choice of two tables when I sat down. Went with two women. I know, I know. I am a stereotyping bastard. Well, the other table had a bunch of regulars. I did not notice one regular at the chick table.

I sat down and immediately noticed that the lady next to me had very little knowledge of the game. Her hand motions while in a hand can only be described at erratically tentative. Almost as if every action was a question, only performed so swiftly in order to avoid embarrassment. If she was wrong she would just play it off like she was doing something else. When she rivered two pair on a four way checked down board, I heard her give a little squeal. She put in a $5 bet with great self satisfaction. The other lady was a total rock. She was playing next to her husband. He was weak tight. Two other dudes were just as bad. I had picked the correct table.

The one truly talented player at the table raised it to $11 in early position. Four callers to me in the cutoff. I have AcQc. I call of course. If I were in the blinds and it was off suit, I probably fold. I really do not like AQ. The big blind comes along and we see a flop of KcTc3c. Gin!!!! The original raiser makes it $35. Folds to new girl. She says "oh well" and goes in for a total of $60. I put out a stack of $100. Big blind folds and original raiser folds. He flashes JhJC. I win. She never showed Would have liked to see. I love playing with new players. It is like time traveling back to when I first started playing. I have long since come to grips that I too once played and behaved that way.

Over all it was a good day. I flopped two pair three times and won. I turned a nut straight. I flopped a set. Everything just seemed to work today. Nice.

Overall myself and many regulars at the Missouri casinos are in agreement. The new casino has generated great games. Just like last week. There were eight "fish" and two "sharks". For lack of better terminology. I am no shark but I ain't no guppy. Usually the ration is reversed at the other casino's. Hope it lasts.

Hollywood Casino

2012-02-10T08:48:00.002-06:00

A new casino opened up last Friday. Its name is Hollywood Casino and it is located on the second turn of Kansas Speedway. It is also twenty five minutes door to door from my house. This is significant for me in that all other poker rooms in KC take me about an hour door to door. That extra half hour is a big deterrent. I may have more poker in my future.

The advertising campaign leading up to its opening billed Hollywood as Kansas City's first true Vegas like gaming experience. They sort of got there. It obvious it is not riverboat like the Missouri casinos. The ceilings vault. There is no smelly river. Everything is state of the art. Slots, table games are all shinny and new. They biggest non Vegas amenity is the alcohol. It is most definitely not free. No big deal, as I rarely drink and play poker.

The poker room is nicely and conservatively adorned. Just like the rest of the casino. There is not much flash, neon or flashing lights. Other than the slots that is. I walked up to the podium to put my name on the 1/3 nl game. I had to wait a while as the men in suits still seemed to be learning the ropes. The list was ten long and I put my name on it. They took my cell number so I could be texted when my seat was available. This I really liked. The other rooms do not do that. In fact I have never been to a Vegas room that does that, though I am sure it exists.

I wander off and lose $75 playing table games. I get my text 30 minutes later and go get my seat. The tables are nice and the chairs swivel and are comfy. The only issue is they shoehorned 12 tables into a space for 10. Hard to get around and no matter where you sit you are getting bumped by other players.

The play was way soft. A lot of players must have come in from the Kansas side that do not usually make it over to Missouri. I saw a lot of the regulars but only two were at my table. Usually the ratio is reversed. I get in cheap with 57d. Flop is 3s6d8d. Two of us call smallish bets to the river where I hit my straight. It checks to me and I get two players to pay me $40. I hit two sets in two hours. End up a buy in. Lots of calling down with top pair this day. Nice.

Over all a nice experience. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out. I have the Bravo Poker Live app for my phone. Lets me see how many games are going on in all three poker rooms. Yesterday, Hollywood had 9. Ameristar 3 and Harrahs 3. The average used to be nine between Ameristar and Harrahs. So Hollywood must be drawing from the west.

Vegas

2012-02-09T17:41:00.002-06:00

Spent the Superbowl weekend in Las Vegas. Only played two short sessions of poker. Up a couple hundred. I decided to stay with the group this time. They played a lot of Pai Gow. So I played a lot of Pai Gow. I was up on that too. I hit a straight flush on the bonus for $250. I won every session. I only threw craps once. I borrowed $5 from my buddy and ran it up to $400. The down was my sports bets. I made seven $100 sports bets and lost everyone. Oh well. Great time. Saw Motley Crue. Was not my first choice but the group was going. It was a great concert. I forgot how many of their songs I know. I recommend it.

The only had one semi strange incident at the poker table, I was at the Golden Nugget playing 1/2 nl. Eventually there was a button straddle. Now in Kansas City where I play most of my poker wherever the straddle is, action begins with the hand immediately to the left of the straddler. At the Golden Nugget, they only allowed,as far as I could tell, button straddles. Furthermore, the action always started with the under the gun player and continued normally until it reached the button straddle and then skipped him. Then the blinds would act and then action reverted back to the button.

Is this normal in Vegas? Is this normal anywhere else? I had never seen it and I am intrigued.

MT

Sets

2012-01-12T08:29:00.004-06:00

I have been on a bit of a dry spell when it comes to flopping sets recently. I had kept a running total in my mind and I had over 40 pocket pairs with out getting the set. Last time I went to the boat with Prasad, I told him this at while at dinner. He came by later and I had flopped a set with 66 but lost on the board of 763. One of the blinds had 45 and I could not catch up. Lost the minimum when a 5 came on the turn and I slowed down.

Last Thursday. Not sets. Barely any pairs.
The drought continued.

Just Tuesday I play again. I sit a t a 3/6 table to pass the time. Play three hands before my 1/2 seat opens up. Sit at seat seven and immediately realize that my $214 buy in was not nearly enough. Apparently the game had been going on all night. There were stacks of $1000, $1500, $800, $700 and a few more in the $500 range. I brought a pee shooter to a tank battle. The only other stack near mine was just under $200 but he doubled up as I was sitting down. I almost got up and went back to 3/6 and just see flops. Ameristar allows players to buy in for up to %75 of the largest stack. I could have bought in for $1,125.00. I just did not have the scratch. I only brought the one buy in. They are always starting new tables in the morning. This is the first one I have seen go all night.

I get KK in middle position. Drunk utg guy puts out two chips with a sloppy gesture. He realizes one is red and tries to take it back. Another player says it has to stand and the dealer affirms this. They tell him not to worry, someone will raise it. I oblige and bump it to $15. I get three callers including drunk guy. The door card is the Ks. Bingo. It is starting to rain. The nest two cards are the queen and jack of spades. Poorly textured flop to say the least. Drunky checks. I decide to check to see what the other guys will do. It get checked around. The turn is a red 9. Not getting better. Drunky bets out $25. I resign myself to call it down unless the board pairs or the case king shows up. It is now heads up. A red 4 hit the river. Drunky makes the same bet. I sigh and call. He says all he has is a pair of queens. I table my set and win. Woot. The best part was drunk guy saying he was trying to be cute with his opening bet. I guess he was angle shooting with AQos. Too funny.

I get pocket queens and slow play them some time later. I flop another set and get some more of drunkys chips.

Drought busted.

Funny annoying moment of the session. Drunk guy and seat 10 get into a pot together. There is some betting and it gets to the river. Drunk guy says you have a pair you win. Seat ten states he has second pair and drunk dude puts his hand over the muck, waiting to see the winner. Ten waits for him to show. They get in a debate. Drunk guy telling him to just show his hand. The dealer steps in and explains to drunky that he made the last bet so action is to him. Show your hand and fold. Drunky kept saying the same thing to seat 10. To his credit seat 10 would not relent. This went on for over a minute. I told drunky to just show his cards or fold. As did the rest of the table. Finally the dealer told him to decide or he would call the floor. He mucked.

I get what the drunk player was doing. I have done it myself. Hold my cards out with my missed drawing hand. Most of the time they flip it and I fold. If they decline I act immediately. No biggie. One time recently I missed my flush and checked down the river with an older man seated right next to me. I tell him if he has a pair he wins and hold my hand out to muck. He decides to play the asshole card and nearly yells at me "then show your hand or fucking fold". I had not had any dealings with him until now. I was taken aback by this outburst. I show my missed draw and tell him thanks for the rules lesson dick. He mutters something about the rules again. I said yeah I fucking know, but up until now it had been a friendly game. All he had to say is show me yours. He apologized later.

Squirrel

2012-01-09T12:36:00.003-06:00

I bought some bird seed to fill my "squirrel proof" bird feeder. I also bought a suet cake to put in my suet cake holding bird feeder. Here they are.

Nice of the squirrel to pose eh?

Anyway, what was intended to be a mission to feed the birds and attract some color to my back deck has turned into a battle between myself and the tree rats. They honed in on the suet cake almost immediately. They made short work of it. I tried to thwart their onslaught by storming out the door. Throwing rocks. I even used my sons Nerf gun. I hit one in the ass. Alas undeterred by my defenses, the varmits won.

Tree rats 1

Morning Thunder 0

They then set there sites on the seed feeder. I purchased this style because it specifically touted itself as "squirrel proof". I used it all last year and no squirrel issues. This year different story. The squirrels have been dining on seed until today. I had the feeder a little higher in the tree yesterday. Its former location was near a branch that might as well of been a dinning room chair. The squirrels just sat on that branch and spent their sweet time digging out the seed. You can see they have eaten about two to three inches worth of seed in one day.

Last evening I moved the feeder to the chair. It hangs a little lower, but the tree rats cannot get to the seed. Now I have never seen more than two squirrels at, or around the feeder. Since the seed is no longer easily acquired, they seem to have brought in the whole brain trust. I looked out the door this morning and there were six tree rats on the deck, feeder or tree. There was one charged with getting at the seed. The others were watching intently. Chirping him on. The best minds in the squirrel race seem to be stumped.

Tree rats 1

Morning Thunder 1

It must have been a good year for nuts in the neighborhood. There are way more squirrels than the previous five years we have lived here. We used to have a few owls living in the woods behind us. They seem to have moved on or died. Hence the explosion in the population I suppose. A hawk has moved in now. It came screaming by my window a few months back no doubt after a meal. I am hoping my little bird feeder ends up feeding a bird of prey. Serves them right. Don't steal from the little pretty birds, their scary big brother might be watching.

The Grump

2012-01-06T08:03:00.002-06:00

Played at Ameristar yesterday. I only get to play short stints during the week. You know, family obligations and everything.

The game is 1/2. It is full of regulars. I am slowly becoming one of semi regulars. They have seen me enough and recognize me though they do not know my name yet. It is a grind, but that is okay. I like seeing flops.

I am chipping down on this day. I make my gut shot straight and lose to a full house. Down to $130 of my original buy in. I am in late position when I get The Grump It is the 2h4h. I limp for the $2. The button immediately makes it $10. There are three callers so I put in the extra $8. I tell myself I am crazy for playing this hand only because a certain blogger extolls its virtues on a semi regular basis. I see lots of flops but not a many rivers with the mighty 24. The flop comes out 7d 2d 4c. Bingo. Checks to the button who bets $15. Folds around and I call. Heads up. The 4d falls on the turn. Super bingo!!!!. This card is the best card I could hope for. It gives me the third nuts and completes the flush draw. I decide to bet at it. I have played with the button before. He will call here with the nut flush draw or with any two pair. I bet $35. He calls quickly. The river is the 9d. I decide to check, having put him on the flush draw. Usually the regular jump on weakness and will make a stab here. He checks though and tables Qd7h. I guess he put me on the flush draw and was looking for the 7. I missed a bet. He would have called a little something with the Qd.

I am back on the 24 wagon.

MT

Praad and Me

2012-01-02T20:46:00.004-06:00

Prasad and I went up to the Ameristar Friday night. P got off to a rough start. Dropped a buy in early. I chipped down early. Got QQ on my fifth hand of the night. I was in the big blind. It limped by everyone. I raise to $18. Only the small blind calls. He is the youngest guy at the table. The flop was ace high. I bet weak at it. My mistake. He check calls. The turn is a 9. He checks, I check. The river the 9 of hearts. Completes the flush draw and pairs the board. He deliberately counts out $40 and puts it in. It felt like a steal. It looked like a steal. If it were an older player I would fold easily. He was young and it felt like a move. I decide to fold only because it was early and I did not know how he played. I flashed 78 off suit for third pair. He put me on a big pair or AK and when I checked the turn he made the right move. Well done.

I play for a bit and have $$130 in front. I limp in late position with 78os. It is nearly a family pot. Flop is 456 two clubs. Gin!!!! I bet out $7. The button makes is $25. The big blind flats. I push all in for $120 more. The button deliberates and tanks for a while. I am pretty sure he has A2. He finally calls. The big blind shrugs and says he is priced in. He calls. The turn is the 8 of spades and the river is the Q of diamonds. I flip the winner and have both of them barely covered. I more than triple up and am happy happy. The button had 62 of hearts The big blind flopped two pair.

Dealer mishap of the week. I was not involved in the hand. Action is after the flop. Player makes it $30. The button moves all in for $37 more. He announces all in for $37 more. The dealer was talking to someone else and says to the original raiser $37 total. He puts out $7 more for the call. The button objects and she realizes her mistake and fixes it. She looks at me and says something like I just repeat what I hear. No no no!!! That is not your job. Your job is to pay attention and call the action correctly. You clearly are not listening Please do not half ass it. Frustrating.

Funny hand of the night. I was not in it. Utg limps. Next player makes it $15. Button calls. The player next to me calls The big blind calls. Utg moves in for $65 more. The original raiser quickly stacks his chips and moves in. This is done with the confidence that comes only from having aces. The player next to me folds flashing AKs. He knew he was crushed. The button folds The big blind tanks. He has about $65 in front of him. He finally mutters something about being pried in and calls. The original raiser proudly flips over his AA. The flop is Kd Kc 7h. The guy next to me is kicking himself. I told him it was still the right play. The turn in the 4d. The river is the Qd. Utg groans and mucks. Never found out what he had. The big blind peers at the board and after some time flips over wait for it, wait for it, T5 of diamonds. He went runner runner flush with crap to beat him. It was awful. The slow roll. The horrible beat. The AA guy was livid. It was funny listening to T5 justify the call. When there is $400 in there he had to call. In actuality the most he could win was $240 or so minus the rake. Probably not even that much with the utg guy only having $70 or so to start the hand.

Prasad rallied and was up over $400.

It was a good night.

Drop by Gas out

2011-12-27T12:35:00.003-06:00

Not much going on. Chiefs blew it. San Diego Lost. Denver lost. All they had to do was beat the Raiders and they are playing for the the division next week in Denver. They had two field goals blocked. Does not really matter. Would have been creamed in the play offs even if they beat Denver.

Poker wise not much going on. Went to Ameristar last Thursday with Big Slick. We had to wait on a table so we played a little Pai Gow to pass the time. He had never played before so it was fun teaching him. He finally sits down and the first hand he gets the wheel with a pair of kings up top. Lucky bastard. I dropped about $60 there. Finally get our seats and I get dealt 33 first hand. I am in late middle position so I open raise after it is folded to me. Couple of callers see the flop 245 rainbow. I c-bet. One caller. The turn is gin 6h. Two hearts on the board. I bet $30. He calls. The river is the Jh. Not too scary but still completes the flush. I make it the same bet and he folds. The hand represented all my profit that day. Played four more hours and cashed out up $80. Up $20 for the day.

Slick finished up $300. He only played about an hour. He started having horrible stomach pains. He went and bought antacid. No help. We finally leave and he can barely talk on the way home. He was convinced it was his gall bladder after talking to a medical friend. He was going to go to Walgreens clinic. I talked him into going to a clinic with a real doctor. He calls me couple hours later and it was just bad gas. Haha. X-rays and $180 later he farted and all was better. He ended up $120 on the day.

Chiefs

2011-12-18T16:09:00.002-06:00

Wow. I mean wow. Beat the Packers. I know the Packers were sleep walking through this game, but the Chiefs were DOA. What a statement by Romeo Crennel and Kyle Orton. Kind of mad at Scott Pioli for not pulling the trigger on Haley sooner. Might have made all the difference. I have not watched the Packers at all this season except for this game. They had huge problems on the offensive line and on defense in general today. The score does not accurately reflect the tenor of the game. The Chiefs offense owned the the Packer defense. Kansas City had it 1st and goal inside the five four times and came away with only nine points. Could and should have been much worse. Packers looked really beatable. I am going to chalk it up to one game and expect Green Bay to win out.

Again

2011-12-14T10:06:00.003-06:00

Played again. Up $20 for four hours work. Yay me!!!

Couple of interesting things.

First was a spat between the 1 and 2 seats. I was in 4 and had a great view. The one seat was unhappy with how the two seat was playing. The two seat had shown down J5, 52, and another crappy hand I cannot remember. He had one with two of them. The one seat is a guy they call $50 Mike. He never buys in for more or less. He literaly only plays the nuts. AK is the worst hand he plays and he gets it in pre flop, hopes to get called and double up. Seat two called him down with AJ suited. Saying "you only play the nuts. I know I am behind, But, I will give you action.". Mike won but I guess this still miffed him. They argue back and forth. The two seat is by far the better player. He tried to steal a pot from me when I was betting the whole way. His line did not make sense so I called. He had ace high. Mike has no post flop game. Mike could not fathom why seat two was doing what he was doing. It was pretty funny to watch.

I get AA on the button. Don't you just love AA on the button? Begging for a pot building raise with multiple callers so you can take down a big pot uncontested. Under the gun raises to $15. Is there anything better the utg raising when you have AA on the button? Gets one caller, seat two. I pop it to $45. Utg says oh well I will give you action and puts it out there. Seat two mucks. Utg then turns his hand over and says good luck. The whole table says whoa what are you doing? He looks down at me and sees the one black chip, six red birds and a couple of singles. He cringes and says he thought I was all in. He has two red 8's. The flop is ten high no 8. I move in and he folds. Nice little pot.

Rules

2011-12-07T07:54:00.002-06:00

I was playing at Ameristar yesterday. I put my name on the 1/2 list and sat down at a 4/8 limit game to pass the time. Was up a little and down a a little. An incident happened shortly before I left the table. The hand was normal until the right before the turn card. It was bet around and called around to the gentleman seated directly to my right. He was in the 8 seat. I was in the nine seat. As the eight seat was pondering a call, the dealer proceeded to burn and was pulling the turn card off the deck when the eight seat told her to wait, he had not acted. She put the card back on top of the deck. The ten seat immediately said he saw the turn card. Now here is the question. Is the card live still? I do not know what the rule in such a case s. The ten seat was not in the hand. It would have literally been a split second fix. Just as the ten seat said it was exposed, the eight seat said call. Now I know the eight seat did not see the card. I could not see it and I was watching. The one seat could not see it. Only the ten seat could see it, and he was not in the hand. I was not in the hand either. The floor was called. He had them expose the Kd to the whole table. Which was funny because after the floor made his decision and the turn had not yet been exposed, the ten seat declared it to be the Qh. The river was then burned and turned. The Kd was then shuffled into the deck and one card was taken off the top to complete the hand.

I am wondering if this was handled properly? I guess the answer would be collusion. If the ten were in cahoots with a player in the hand, it might make sense. It seems to me he just keeps his mouth shut and move on. If he were in the hand, sure.

Life

2011-12-05T12:17:00.001-06:00

I live in Lawrence Kansas. Lawrence is basically an extended suburb of the greater Kansas City Metropolitan area. One of the neat things about living in Lawrence is our television situation. We are about twenty five minutes from Topeka and forty minutes from Kansas City. Therefore, we get to double dip. Two of each major network, except Fox. This is useful mostly in regards to sporting events. Many times we have four different choices for the NFL or college football.

My wife and I have great friends who live in Olathe Kansas. They were both in our wedding. We have gone on many vacations together. We have been there for the births of our respective children. I go to Vegas with Troy every year. We are close. Jana is an executive producer at Fox 4 in Kansas City. Most of you outside the KC area are probably not aware that the morning weather anchor, Don Harman, took his own life last Tuesday evening. It has impacted the greater Kansas City area in a way that most could never understand. He was greatly loved. He will be missed. He was like a brother to Jana. His loss was no less to her than you or I losing our parent or spouse.

Every year, Troy and Jana, organize a Limo ride around Kansas City to see the inspiring and sometimes creepy light displays. If you get the chance, go see the Country Club Plaza in December. It is pretty cool. Anyway, our annual foray took place this last Saturday. They buried Don Friday. We showed up, left the kids with the sitter, and took off with six other couples. We had a great time. It was what the doctor ordered. At one point we ended up in a neighborhood bar that happened to cater to the gay community. It was some of the most fun I have had in quite some time. We tore up the dance floor and did numerous shots. It struck me as I watched Troy and Jana dancing on the dance floor that they would be more than good. They would be great. They were sad to be sure. But, I was witnessing healing. They were not only dancing, they were connecting. They were laying the foundations. They had lost a loved one, yes, but the break would heal stronger.

We got back to their house and I checked my email. I got an email I was dreading. A high school friend had passed. She had liver cancer. She left behind a husband and two young daughters. She was quite possibly the nicest person I have met. I can not think of one crappy thing she ever did. This is what her husband wrote:

Good Evening Everyone,

With the heaviest of hearts, I wanted to let everyone know that Megan passed away this evening (Sat 12/3) at 9:25pm CST.

Her final struggle was mercifully quick and as peaceful as one could hope for and her passing was no different than the way that she lived her life - completely immersed and surrounded with love. Her parents, her sister and I were with her until the very end. Within minutes, my Mom (who had flown in from Colorado) made it. The girls had a good hour earlier in the day to say goodbye and then came back for one last goodbye. She was also visited by Gina Taddiken when she brought the girls. So, in a way, everyone who has had a hand in helping us was there as well through Gina.

We know that Megan is now in a better place, no longer struggling against this horrible disease. However, we are still so very sad at the unbearable thought of not having the best wife/mommy around. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers that we have received thus far. They have and will continue to sustain us through this dark time.

As soon as I have information regarding the service, I will have it posted immediately.

Love to All,

Healing. Again. It is there in his message. I can feel it.

They are resilient. We are resilient.

Puts busted bullets and sinus infections in their place.

Maybe what was left in Pandoras box was what we needed.

Bullshit

2011-12-02T12:46:00.001-06:00

Bullshit happening

I'm just some fucking guy.

AA AA AA

2011-12-01T17:18:00.003-06:00

Went to Ameristar again to try my luck. Got there around 9:45 in the a.m. and got the last 1/2 seat. I thought I would play it safe for the first round and assess the table. The poker gods had other plans. Third hand in I pick up AA under the gun. I limp in. Now I usually would not do this but they have a busted bullets promotion and there were three left. Two guys to my left raises it to $11. Three callers back to me and I bump it to $45. The original raiser calls and the others go away. The flop is the innocuous 922. I bet out $75. The other dude instant raises. I move all in and he calls. Now there really is no thought to this at all because I have AA. If they are cracked, I get a $100 rebate from the promotion. I flip over my AA and he flips over. Wait for it. Wait for it. Fucking 92os. NO WAY. I am stunned. 99 I could handle. Maybe ever A2 suited. But 92 off suit. I lose of course and have $25 left. I ask him if he new it was coming. He looked at me straight faced and said the dealer was talking about the Montana. And once that happened there was no way he was folding. I told him straight faced that it made perfect sense. My end of the table laughed. I pressed him and asked if I moved in before the flop that he would call. He said yep. Guy next to me whispered "Moron.". Love that guy. And I guess the 92 is called the Montana Banana or something. I got my $100 rebate and played on.

It whittled down to $65 or so. Turns out I was seated directly right of the two biggest aggro dorks I had ever played. with. They bet and bet and bet. I picked up 77 in the big blind and we saw a cheap flop six ways. It flopped A 7 2. Gin. I check. Aggro dork directly left of me bets $11. Called in two place and I call as well. The turn is a 8. I love this board. I have to be getting paid by someone with an ace. I check. Aggro dork fires $15 at it. Folds to me and I move in. He calls and flips over two pair with 82. He played 82 under the gun. Love this guy. I get my double up back to $130 or so.

I get AA again in the small blind. This time no cracked bullets are left. Middle position semi aggro guy makes it $14 to go. It gets called in two other spots. I bump it to $100 flat. Folds around. Nice $45 pot no work.

Float a flop with the gutty. Get there on the turn. Win a nice little pot. Now I am up $25 on the day.

Get AA again. In the small blind again. I love AA in the blinds. Limped around in three places. I am still sitting next to super aggro donk. He had $600 in front when I sat down. That is gone now and he has reloaded $200 twice. He has been sucked out on and is steaming. I make a calculated risk and decide to limp here. I was checking him out in the peripheral and he seemed like he was going to bet. He did not. Damn. Hate 5 handed flops holding AA. Oh well gotta get away if it gets ugly. The flop comes 348 off suit. I check to see what he would do. He bet $22. Folds to me. I smooth call. I hate that flop with him in the big blind. It would have smacked him. I felt I could get a better read after the turn. The turn is a somewhat scary 7. No flush draw though. I check. He quickly puts out $50. I had been paying attention to his betting patterns. When he had a good hand, he always bet around %50 more than his flop bet which would be $33 here. This was an over bet for him and it screamed go away. I thought for a moment and announced all in for $90 on top. He instant called. SHIT. I am toast. He has two pair or some crappy 56. He pushes his chips in and flips over A8 os. Top pair top kicker. I sigh and flip mine over The river blanks and I am up to $350 or so. He soon melted completely down and lost to an old rock holding AA. OR bets. AD raises before the flop. OR calls. AD announces all in in the dark. Flop is A high. OR calls and shows the nuts.

Felt good to flop a set and win. Felt good to have AA hold up most the time.

Misfortune

2011-11-17T17:08:00.003-06:00

Played twice in as many weeks. Lost a buy in each time. The first time was nothing special. Just a whole lot of second best and busted draw hands. Today was a bit different. I am up and down. Mostly down. Hovering around $90 or so. I get Qd9d in the big blind. I get a pass with five other players. The flop is Tc8c6h. I checks around to the button who makes is $5. I call with with double gutter as does a middle position player. The turn is the oh so lovely Jack of hearts. I check and the middle position player makes it $15. The button flats and I move in for around $70 more. The middle player tanks and finally calls. He was on a little heater and had over $500 in front. The button folds and the river bricks with a 5 of spades. The middle guy had Jc3c. I am over $200 now and feeling good. Very next hand I get KK. My first real playing hand in three hours. Folds to the button who makes it $5. This is a 1/2 game. I pop it to $15. The big blind folds and the button calls. T86 rainbow. I put him all in for $52 more. He thinks and says if he calls he is gambling. He finally gives the oh well call and the turn is another ten. The river bricks and he tables JT. I loved the call. Hated the outcome. Just when I though I was getting on a little heater. Six hands later I am under the gun with 55. I limp for $2. The guy next to me limps. Old dude one off the button makes it $10. Button call. I call. Set mining. The guy next to me wakes up and raises to $35 total. Uh oh. This is only one of two hands. AA or KK. I think. He may be trying to isolate the old guy who was giving away money. Old guy call. Button Calls. I make the crying $25 call with presto. The flop reveals the door card as the five of diamonds. Woot whoooooo. The other two cards were the ten of clubs and a fucking ace of diamonds. I check it to the raiser and he bets $50. Fold fold to me. I only have $100 left in front. What to do? What to do? My read was I was toast. He had AA for the set over set situation. I am not good enough. Or I do not play enough to have the discipline to fold here. I announce all in and push my stack in. He flashes me the bad news and asks me "Do you think I should call?" Damn no miracle AK here. I knew I was beat. In my bones I knew it, but was not good enough to throw away a set. No bad beat for me. Igh. Dejected. I either have to play this game a whole lot more or not at all. I think If I was a grinder I could easily fold that hand. I just only get to play twice a month at best and I can not stop myself.

Ameristar

2011-11-01T15:24:00.002-06:00

I decided last night before bed that I was going to get up with the kids. Get them off to school and go and play poker. I live about an hour away form the nearest poker playing casino. I was getting up there once a week, but I had only been up there a handfull of times in the last six months. The construction of a new casino at Kansas Speedway is almost complete. It is only twenty five minutes away. My trips should increase February one when the Hollywood Casino is slated to open. But I digress.

Harrahs is about five minutes closer than the Ameristar. The Ameristar's bad beat is about a million dollars better than Harrahs. Based on the miniscule chance that I may win my share of $350,000, I chose the Ameristar. Its main and secondary jackpot both sit at $350,000. The tertiary jackpot is $240,000.

I show up and there is a 4/8 and a 3/6 limit game going. I put my name on the list for both and a 1/2 nl game. I get sat at the 1/2 game by 10 a.m. I went there today with the idea in mind that I would just be happy seeing flops. There is a Zen aspect to the game for me in that regard. I can look at flops all day sometimes and not be so result oriented. The upshot of this approach on this occasion was an extremely tight table image. I got crap for cards. I played some hands in the blinds and with suited connectors in late position. Nothing ever hit. I did not see a pair of AK in the first two hours. I had AQ once but had to lay it down pre flop to a raise and reraise. I finally get my first pair after two hours of basically folding and watching my $200 buy in fall to $140 or so. I look down to AA under the gun. Normally I would raise here, but I had not raised a hand or played past a flop in two hours. They all think I am a monster rock. They are all regulars. They know each other. I decide to limp raise. Only one caller and the button come along. The big blind had folded out of turn and went to smoke. Not horrible for AA. Also, I must tell you they have five Aces cracked every day. There were still three left, so I had that for back up. The flop was ten high. I bet at it small. $5. I do not know why. I think the obvious play here is to check call it down and hop someone catches up. I won the small pot. I do not like playing AA in no limit when there is an aces cracked promotion. It messes with my head.

A couple rounds later I get AK utg. I just limp with the idea of check raising the right raiser. Once again it is limped in but this time we are six handed. The flop is gin. AK7 rainbow. I check. A middle position player bets $10. One caller and it is back to me. I bump it to $45. This bet would basically commit the initial bettor. He only had $71 behind. He thinks a second and moves in. The other caller folds and I call. My AK beats his A7 and I am up $80 for the day.

I slug around up and down for a while and get AA again. Under the gun, again. I limp, again. Three of us see the flop. Q72. The big blind bets out. I just call the $5 and the other guy calls as well. The turn is a J rainbow board. Big blind checks as do I. The button makes it $15. Call and call. The river is a ten. It gets checked around. The big blind is upset, he had rivered a set and wanted to check raise. I flip over my cards and the dealer pushes the pot to the set and starts to muck the card. I speak up about the aces cracked. He did not even know there was one left. It was close to gone, but I got my $100 for my $78 profit. I ended the session soon thereafter up $120 for the day. Not bad for the four hours work. It was nice to get back out there.

Finally....poker

2011-10-18T15:39:00.002-06:00

Played Carls game last night. Showed up late. Six handed. I sit down and what should appear under my hole cards. AA. Merry Christmas. I raise it to $4. Get three callers. They think I am bullying the table. Flop is jack high. Blevins bets at it. Slick smooths and I make it $20 more to go. Fold around and Slick flashes AJ as he folds. I flop a straight next hand and win a nice little pot. Fold the next hand. See a flop with QTc in the big blind the next hand. Flop is ten high with two clubs. I bet and get called. Blevins then blasts the pot. I think for a minute and decide to call and see what happens. The turn is the Qd. I check and the other dude checks. Blevins bets $30. I tank for a bit. Wondering what the other guy has. I am almost positive Blevins has a set. Has to. Oh well I can either fold or push. Fold is out of the question. I have a ton of outs against a set. I finally push and the other dude folds. Blevins instant folds his cards face up. 2 3 off suit. He had bottom pair on the flop and was firing away. I get TT the next hand and take down a nice pot on a 9 high board. I am up $115 in six hands. Only other interesting hand of the night was against Slick. Blevins bet pre flop. Slick hemmed and hawed a little and flatted. I look down at QQ and move all in. Blevins instant mucks. Slick hems and moans about his acting was for Blevins not me. He flashes his cards and I see a king. Shit I am behind. Slick folds AK instantly. He has to have KK. He asks if I would chop right there. I say hell yes. Blevins rolls out the flop just to see and the door card is a queen. Would not have mattered most likely. We would have run it twice. Over all a good night. Gave a little back and wound up $80. Not bad for a .25/.50 game and three hours of work.

How do you like them apples

2011-10-06T11:56:00.003-06:00

Honeycrisp

If you have never had one, I am sorry for you.

Full Tilt

2011-09-21T07:29:00.000-06:00

I was right about Howard Lederer

Played

2011-09-06T15:51:00.002-06:00

Played my home game last night. Up and down. Bluffed a nice pot. Hit top set on a T23os board. Got a double up through Carl when he paid me off with KT. Finished up $40. Carl then bets $40 with a set on the flop. Aggro donk calls with an oesd. They run it twice and Carl loses both times. He throws a fit and ends the game. Says he is not going to have a home game anymore. Ouch. Gotta find a new home.

Well here I am

2011-08-09T10:42:00.002-06:00

Been away a while. I have not really played much poker in the last two weeks. I did play "poker" after golfing. But, I do no consider poker with wild cards real. I did win $40 though. Before that I went on a little run bad/ play bad streak. I was up $250 at my home game. I then played a home game the next night and gave it back. I went to the casino and gave back a couple hundred more. Stupid play. Weak tight will get you nowhere in this game.

I decided to venture back into the water last night. I got there late after my softball game and the stacks were deep for our little .25/.50 game that plays like a 1/2 game. I bought in for $100 and was easily the short stack. One one big hand for the night when I opened raised my JJ from middle position. Agro donk two to my left pops me. I call and see a flop of 843 rainbow, heads up. I check and he bets over the pot. I ask him what he has left and it is $45 more. I go all in and he calls and ask how many times I want to run it. Good sign. He has 75 off suit. Really? He needs running cards or the gutter ball 6. I should have just run it once, but I always run it twice. No need to be a dick at a home game. He catches a five the first time but nothing else. He blanks out on the second run and I scoop the pot. I chip up from there a little. Win a balls hand to end the night and cash out up $169. Not bad for two hours work.

Got my Fix

2011-07-12T07:26:00.002-06:00

Had not played poker in what seemed life an eternity. Actually was less than a week. But, there is no internet poker to scratch the itch, so the times between sessions seems longer than they really are.

Carls house is the place. .25/.50 is the game. I arrive late and buy in for $100. I splash around a bit and get up a little with some steals and uncontested pots. I get AQos in the small blind. There are three limpers. I decide to punish them and bump it to $5. The big blind calls. All three limpers call. So much for punishment. The flop comes K-T-8. I check and id gets checked around. The turn is a 9. The board is now rainbow. I decide to bet out $15 to see if I can buy the pot here. If not I still have outs to the nuts. Everyone folds except the under the gun player. He flats. Am I looking at QJ here? The river peels the beautiful J of spades. I double check it to make sure there are no flushes that I might have missed. I decide to bet about $25. He instantly moves all in. I call and table the nuts. He mucks his hand and mumbles something about not seeing that coming. Carls said I am sneaky. I tell him I have always been sneaky, he just does not pay attention.

Very next hand, I look down at KK on the button. Prasad is directly on my right and raises it to $8. I decide to play them a slow and smooth call. I figured no one else would call due to the size of the bet. I was wrong. The big blind and Carl came along. The flop is Q-8-4. Two hearts. Checks to Prasad and he bets $20. I flat and the other two fold. The turn is the Jh. Prasad checks and I check. I was playing the player here and I have seen Prasad stop and go in this spot. The river is the Tc. Prasad instant fires $35 into the pot. I call asking if he caught a set on the river or if he had the set of queens. He said no I was good as I tabled my KK. Bam Bam and I am up $200 for the night. I hang on to it and a little more to cash out up $215 Oh I busted Carl on the last hand of the night. He had JJ. I flopped a set with 88. Ten high board and he gets it in. He was a shortie, so not much money was to be had.

It left me with a question though. During both of my big hands, I ended up tabling the winner without seeing the others hold cards. Now at a casino, I will always wait for the raiser to show before I expose my cards. In both of these hands, I was the caller, yet never saw the losing hands. Prasad later told me he had AQ and I believe him. I do not know what the other buy had. Most probable being any other queen. It is a home game, and I do not want to be a dick. This is true especially in the first hand. I have the mortal nuts. If I set there and make him table his second best hand only to show him the joint, well that just makes me feel dirty.

What do you think? I guess I could show first and ask to see his cards, citing that I called him. I don't know.

No Casinos Just home game

2011-07-07T08:40:00.002-06:00

I have not made it up to KC to play at the Casinos in the last couple of weeks. Friends and vacation have been occupying my time. That leaves me with home games.

One of the regulars at our home game recently purchased a poker table. It is pretty cool. It seats nine. It is pretty much a cheaper version of a casino table, repleat with cup holders, dealer spot with locking chip tray, and leather chairs. The chairs swivel and adjust vertically. The only slight negative is the base of the table. It protrudes our around the three end chairs more than at a casino. It is a minor drawback though. The table is pretty cool.

We are playing .50/1.00. I buy in for $100. My fourth hand I am dealt 87os. It is a family pot to me so I limp in the cut off. The button raises to $8. Calls around so I call. I say out loud to the cards, "Pick me flop". It does. A-7-7. Bingo. It checks around to me and I check it to the button. He checks. The turn is a J. The button seemed to stiffen up a bit. It checks around to me and I bet $15. The button min raises me. I am pretty sure I am beat here. I have played with the button a lot and I just sense it. I call anyway. The river blanks. I check call the $25 bet. He shows JJ for the turned boat. My fault. I should have bet the flop. There was enough money in there to just take it down. I re buy and resolve to play better.

I tread water a bit. I flop trips again with a six and lose to a flush draw that won't fold. I flop two pair and lose to a straight and flush draw that would not fold. I flop trips again with 4-3os after I call a smaller pre flop raise. I check and the bettor checks. The turn is a 3. I check/ call a smallish bet. The river is an ace. I lead out with a "value" bet. I get raised about my stack. I push and lose to.....99. Nice. I was pretty sure I was behind after the re-raise, but could not find the fold. Busto again.

I get ready to leave and Prasad asks if I want to borrow cash. I scrape together another $100. Chip up and down. I call a small raise while on the button with Jd9d. The flop is Jh-Kd-Js. Gin, right? For the record this is the fourth flopped trips. I have to win, right? The bettor checks and I check behind. I put him on a big ace. The turn is the 5d. He bets and I raise him. He comes over the top. I can't be behind here, can I?. Fuck. I push all in and he calls, instantly. The river is the 4d. I tell him I have a jack and flip it over. He says he does too and flips over JT. FUCK!!!!!! Really? Four fucking times? This is coursing through by brain. I dejectedly tell him the ten plays. He says yeah and starts to rake the pot. And then, thank goodness for Prasad. He speaks up saying, "Isn't there a diamond flush draw on the board?". We both look and sure enough, I win. The pot is pushed my way. The interesting tid bit to this hand is the other player was the same guy who screwed Prasad out of a big pot at my last home game. A little justice I suppose. Ironically, he was dealing this hand as well. I think there was a fifty shot he saw the flush and was not going to tell me. Rule is at our home game is the board talks, no matter what hand is called. He was visibly upset with Prasad. I thought this guy was stand up. Got keep my eye on him now.

Drunk/ high Tony shows up after the bars close. Each of us are hoping we are the one that gets to bust him. It is just a matter of time. He is poor sober. Drunk, he is an ATM. He chips up. Nice. I see a flop with A5os after Tony raises it a bit. It comes 2-3-4. Bingo. Other guy bets. Tony raises. I re-raise. Other guy goes away and Tony pushes. Board comes 2-3-4-6-8. Tony triumphantly yells "straight" as he tables 7-7. We all laugh at him and I win. He sits down, embarrassed. That hand put me up $9 to that point. I ended up losing $3. Not bad for where I was.

Home game conundrum

2011-06-29T13:42:00.002-06:00

While playing in my home game last night, we came across an interesting hand. It is important to note that we do not have a designated dealer. Meaning that each person takes their turn dealing. This is important because one of the people involved in the hand was dealing.

I did not see the hand in question until the turn. I had folded and was returning from the bathroom. The flop was Ah-Th-6c. I saw the turn card peel off. It was the 2 of hearts. Prasad, in the small blind was heads up with Eric, the dealer. Prasad checked the turn. Eric over bet the pot. Not unusual for his style of play. Prasad pushed the rest of his chips in. It was obvious to me that he had moved all in for more than the original bet. Eric peeled off the the 8s for the river without acknowledging this. Prasad had tried to get his attention while he was burning for the river. The issue was this. Eric did not make the call of $40. Carl, the host of the game said the 8s had to be reshuffled and a new river dealt. Another heart came and Eric won the pot with the nuts. He held AK with the king of hearts.

Prasad sat speechless. Eric raked in the chips. I have many issues with what happened. The first being that Eric controlled the deal. He did not make sure the pot was correct before dealing the river. After he dealt the first river and "noticed" the raise from Prasad, he said something to the effect that it did not matter he was going to call anyway. In my opinion, the hand should have been over and Prasad the winner. Eric kept it going by then saying that the rule says it needs to be dealt again. Carl intervenes and says Eric is right. Eric shuffles the 8s back into the deck, deals and wins. He then says he is not sure if he has a heart or not. He made a little theatrical event by flipping each card one at a time. This point makes me think he did it on purpose. He had the nut draw. He is a player that is playing poker for a living in KC. He put in huge bets on a draw heavy board. He can only do that if he knows he has a draw to the nuts. He knew what he had and basically stole a pot from a guy that he calls a friend.

I saw Prasad the next day and we talked about the incident. He told me he was good with Eric and did not think there was any malice involved. Prasad felt it was an honest mistake. I conveyed my worries to Prasad. My number one issue was Eric held the deal. He made the mistake. If it were at a casino, I can understand the rule. A non biased party made a mistake. The rule makes sense. Here it is a "friendly" home game. Coupled with Eric saying he would call anyway, I believe Eric should have released the pot and Prasad declared the winner. Eric made the "mistake" and Prasad lost. Inherently unfair.

I know I would have given the pot to Prasad. The pot was large enough and Eric had the nut draw. The $40 extra would not entice a fold. Even with 8s being declared dead, Eric called, I think Eric should have been allowed to fold to the $40 raise, nothing more.

KK vs AA?

2011-06-19T09:46:00.002-06:00

Here is the notable story from Thursday.

After I busted out of the tournament, I decided, foolishly, to play some cash. I was tired and had been playing for over ten hours. I should have just booked my $130 win and call it good. But, I had come out in the evening specifically to play the casual after work crowd. I had been playing the day grinders with small success. I wanted to get a piece of the easy pickings the fellas in my home game talked about. They said Amerstar was super soft at night.

I buy in for a little over $200. I dwindle up and down all the while trying to stay awake. I should have just gone home. I tell myself I will wait for one more big hand and whatever the outcome head home after that. Few hands later I get KK. Here we go. Guy on my right limps. I bump it to $15. It is a 1/2 game. I get called in five spots as it gets around to the limper. He says something like it is too much but he is priced in and calls. The flop is 6-4-8 off suit. Checks to me and I shove my last $100 into the pot. The small blind calls. I am for sure behind. The limper on my right starts chuckling and says "really?". He flashes his cards to the other end of the table and folds. My kings go down to a set of sixes and I get up to go home. The limper looks at me and says he folded AA. I say "Really?". I do not believe him. The other end of the table confirms it. This holds with what my home game guys were claiming. What a horrible way to play aces. He got the dream scenario. Five people in for a total of $75 in the pot and he just calls. He decides to play aces that way? If he pushes his $150 there, I call and the sixes guy goes away. That was his pot and I told him so as I walked away. He gave me a puzzled look. Will try again soon.

Harrahs and Ameristar

2011-06-17T08:13:00.002-06:00

Played poker yesterday.

Went to Harrahs for the super turbo with the old dudes. I trudge along. Get moved to another table. Two hands of note. Loose older gentlemen is playing lots of hands, and playing them for raises. He had been raising two to three times the blinds and showing hands like KQos A7os KT. We were six handed. Pretty standard stuff. This hand he min raises in early position. Folds to me in the big blind and I have J8 of spades. We have nearly the same chip stack. His raise to me smells like a monster. AK or a big pair. I decide to call and hope for a favorable flop even though the 400T blind represented a significant part of my stack. The structure in this tournament is escalates rapidly. Horrible, but the only game in town. We see a flop A-3-9 all spades. I check the monster while trying to remain calm. He thinks for a few seconds and moves all in. He has me covered by T100. I croak out a call. He flips over A-Q of clubs and is drawing nearly dead. I hold and my stack makes me the chip leader at my table. We play one more hand and eliminate the shorty. Final table time. First hand at the final table, I look down at A-A in the cut off plus one. A short stack in the cut off limps for one quarter of his stack. I pet enough to put him in and protect my hand. To my surprise the only guy that has me covered pushes. Cha Ching. Thank you poker gods. Folds to the short stack and he calls. I call and flip over my cards. The big stack groans and shows his JJ. I have to sweat the river when JJ gets open ended but prevail. I now have 25K in chips. The tourney started with 68K in chips. I am the huge leader. Two hands I go from short stack to prohibitive leader. I give away a bit with AK on the next hand against JJ, otherwise I go on cruse to the final three. I lost the chip lead to seat one when he knocked three people out back to back to back. He had AA, KK, and AA in three successive hands. Unreal. He had me two to one in chips then as I had dwindled. I had a third more chips than third place. Surprisingly, the chip leader asked what the three way chop would be. First woas 554, second was 340ish and third was a little over 200. He proposed the chop and we jumped at the idea. We all got a little better than second place money, $366. Turns out he had to leave soon. Take it.

Harrahs was otherwise dead so I headed over to the Ameristar. Sat down at a 1/2 table. Chipped up a bit. I was being fairly active and get AA under the gun. The older solid guy in the big blind said it smelled like 99 to him and called my $15 raise saying he had two overs. Flop is T-4-4. I bet and he raises me. I call, happy to let him drive the betting. I was confident I was ahead. The turn is a king. He bets half the pot and I smooth call. Still confident I was ahead. The river is another ten. He checks and I decide to value bet $20. He thinks and then raises me $40. I make the crying call and he tables T-7 for the two outer. $100 bucks gone.

I decide to play the tournament. Much better structure. T5500 starting chips. More blind levels. A lot more playing room. First hand I get 9-9 in middle position and limp. The small blind at the other end of the table raises. If folds to heads up with me and I ask the dealer how much he raised. Could not make it out. She seems to ignore me and starts pushing the chips to the raiser. The guy next to me starts yelling at her to stop and tells her I asked how much the raise was. She was apologetic and got it right. I call and we see the flop of 9-7-3. Gin. Small blind leads out 400 and I bump it 1000 more. If he has AK he goes away. Big pair, he stays. He calls. Nice. Turn is another 7. He checks and I make a mistake. I thought he would go the distance with his over pair and bet 2k. He thinks and folds showing QQ. Oh well. Still a nice start. I chip up to twice my starting stack. Win some key races along the way and make the final eight. Four get paid. I am a shorty with blind at 1k/2k. I have about 15k left. Under the gun limps. This guy had not made any moves or out of line calls while I played the last hour with him on the final table. I think to myself, this looks and smells like aces. I look down at AKos. Damn. I raise to 4k from middle position. He starts fidgeting and actually kicking the table. He cannot wait to make a move. I see it and my mind is still screaming ACES. He puts me in. My mind says ACES ACES ACES WARNING. ACES ABORT ABORT ABORT. I find my hand picking up my chips and throw them in while saying you have aces don't you. He does and I lose. I should have folded, but I could not stop myself. I guess I just wanted to show myself that I was right. I will never be great until I learn to lay down those hands.

I have one more story. Next post.

Pub Poker

2011-06-14T20:25:00.002-06:00

Found out via text that there was a $25 entry fee tournament at a local pool hall. It happened last Sunday. My friend P and me, (fun to say), decided to go play. We arrive and find out it is for a satellite to a lesser WSOP event. The satellite would is in a couple of weeks. Not really feasible for our schedules. We say screw it and play anyway. Figure we could sell it to somebody. Well half of the participants were from our home game. We did a $5 last longer. Winner would get their buy in back.

We play and play to the final table. I am grinding. No good spots and bad cards. It took me an hour and a half to get above my starting stack. Get my 66 against shortie with AA. Flopped the set. Got re sucked on the turn by the Ace. Blinds reached 400/800. I look down at my first card and it is a queen. I open push for my 13k. I get called in two spots. Damn. Been caught stealing. Q3 vs 88 vs AK. Turn is a queen and I go from dead last to almost 40k. 140k in play. I get in a nice hand with the weakest player at the table. I limp the small blind with 63. He min raises and I call. Flop 5-7-9. Double gutty. I check and he min bets. Smells like AA to me. Turn is the fun 8. I check and he bets the pot. I push. He tanks for a good minute. He finally calls. Yep AA. I am the chip leader by a good bit now. But wait!! River brings the 6 and we split. Damn. A few hands later AA guy knocks out the other guy. That secures my last longer so now I am free rolling. We spar a bit. I chip up when I get my first big starting hand of the tourney. QQ. He bets big pre flop. I push and he folds. We are even. Almost He has me by 800. Next hand he moves in pre flop. I had been just limping a lot in the small blind heads up. He often would raise and I would always fold. I was lulling him to sleep to set a trap. So he moves in and I had limped with AJos. Monster heads up. I instant call. A3 vs AJ. I win. I now have 132k to his 8k. Long story short I lose the next five hands and lose the tourney. Ridiculous. I was ahead in every hand pre flop. I wish I were more into the math. What are the odds. One time he had to hit the three outer on the river. Love this game.

Chop It?

2011-06-11T22:05:00.003-06:00

Do you chop? I always chop. The only way I do not chop up the blinds is in the event that we both have a cheeseburger. A cheeseburger being a hand that can turn into a bad beat. They call it a cheeseburger in Kansas City. It is against the rules to openly talk about the bad beat. The blinds cannot ask one another if they have a bad beat eligible hand. If they do the bad beat could be voided. I have chopped numerous times and many times been asked if I had a cheeseburger. I have seen the blinds chopped considerably more and the cheeseburger question usually comes up. I have yet to see the blinds decide to play it out.

While at Ameristar Thursday a hand occurred that was folded to the button. The button in the nine seat started to make a motion that indicated he would at least call, but probably raise. The small blind said "You could just let us chop". The button set his chips down and folded. The big blind in the one seat went ballistic. He wanted to play the hand and lambasted the ten seat. The small blind through his dollar at the big blind and apologized. The big blind threw it back. This went on for three more rounds as they jawed at each other. The small blind did not get it. It was not about his dollar. The button was going to play for a raise. He was a very aggressive player. The big blind had a huge hand and was most likely win a little bit of money. The small blind should have kept his mouth shut.

Grinding session. Got AK once. Won small pot when an ace flopped. JJ twice utg that I limped with hoping to trap the aggressive guy. Both times no raise. I lost the minimum on one JJ hand . Flop was 77T. Aggressive guy flopped quads. If I had played the jacks for a raise pre flop, he calls and gets my stack after the flop.

This and that

2011-06-03T10:34:00.002-06:00

Played my home game this Monday. It is a .25/.50 game that plays like a 1/2 by midnight. I arrive at 9:30 and survey the stacks. I opt to buy in for $100. That is about table average. My first hand I look down at 66. UTG raises it to $6. Call, call, I call and one more call. Five way action. Flop is 643. BINGO. Original raiser bets out $20. Nice. Next caller. puts $60 more on top. Really nice. I am now kicking myself for not buying in for more, but all I can do is push for $14 more. Folded around to original raiser. He thinks and asks the second raiser how much he has left which is only $3 more. He thinks for a few seconds and puts the other dude all in. Call of course. King. Seven. I lose. Guess the hands and who won.

Okay, one buy in gone. I go to the car and get another $100. I grind up to nearly $200. Grind down. Near the end of the night we are playing 5 handed. I get QT and limp in. Family pot. Flop is GIN. AKJ off suit. Checks around. Turn is the 5. It puts two hearts out so I bet $2. One guy says he got a little bit if the board and calls. The turn is an off suit 4. He leads out $20. I raise it $50. He re raises it. I push all in for $10 more. He calls and flips over his wheel triumphantly. I show the nuts and rake in my double up. He could not believe he lost. He could not put me on that hand. He was drunk and the only reason I was still playing. I was sure we were splitting it when he four bet me. I ended up $9 on the night Not bad after flopping top set in the first hand.

Cashing Out

2011-06-03T00:32:00.002-06:00

I check in on my online accounts from time to time. Just seeing what, if anything, has changed. Recently Full Tilt converted some tickets to cash. Thanks FT. Swell. I cannot cash out but, hey look at the money I will probably never get. Super well done. I forgot I have a couple of SCOOP tickets on Stars. They have not converted them to cash. Does anyone know if they have or plan to convert these to cash? I could always use the $50. Would be nice seeing as how they pay their players and all.

Sci Fi

2011-05-28T10:53:00.002-06:00

I am a little bit of a science fiction lover. I like just about anything out of the ordinary. Paranormal to space, I like it all. I recently started watching the new Battlestar Galactica. I had caught a few episodes when it first aired, but resisted liking it due to my love of the first series. As a seven year old, the original was the absolute best. I tend to do that a lot. Mostly for the same reason that no one can do a better cover of a Beatles song. Unless of course it was sung by Ringo. And don't get me started on that turd Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory remains the far superior film to this day IMHO. But I digress.

I love it when I miss out of series like this. I did it with True Blood. Missed the first two years before I discovered my vampire addiction. My wife and I would engorge ourselves in hours of it for weeks. Instant gratification, is there anything better. BG has five seasons. And they are all nearly twenty episodes long. Sweet.

In my young mind, knowing no back story to BG, I always envisioned them finding Earth,the 13th colony, and finding Star Trek. I thought it would be cool that the lost colony started the Federation and turned around and kicked some Cylon ass. Transporter technology alone would ruin the Cylons, to say nothing of shields.

The other scenario I daydreamed about during school involved all three major space dramas. Who would win in a war between BG, Star Trek and Star Wars. I think Battlestar Galactica is toast no matter what. But, who wins between Star Trek and Star Wars. Think about it.

Blah Blah Blue?

2011-05-27T11:09:00.003-06:00

Played my home game this week. Dropped $100. First hand I got TT and won a small pot. From then on I was in a cold seat. I even moved and it followed me there. I did get QQ one hand and open raised it to $5. .25/.50 game. I get one caller and then the big blind, Carl, thinks and calls. This is the only hand I have or will raise that evening. Flop is 9c7c3c. Carl checks. I check and the other dude checks. Normally I would bet out there, especially if I had the Qc (I did not). Something in the way Carl responded made me think I was in trouble. The turn is the 7d. Carl lead out for $12. I call. The other guy leaves. The turn is the 9c. Carl slows down. I check behind. He flips over J6 of clubs. I start laughing. He looks at me and says "Well the fourth club came". I look at my neighbor and he says "He just does not get it". I asked Carl if he realized it was the only hand I had raised all night. I asked him how much I would have to raise there to get him to fold J6 suited. Carl just does not understand that there is zero value for him getting into hands with me. I am good enough to lay down big pairs. He made a whopping $22.25 on his $5 investment. Horrible. He is why I like his game so much. He is not a poker player. He is a gambler. He often gets big chip stacks and then just gives them away and goes on tilt. I average $100 profit in this .25/.50 game. He is also the guy that likes to play Omaha hi low no limit. Gambling at its best.

Decided to skip Harrahs this week and drive 5 minutes down the road to Ameristar. The guys in my home game have been saying how soft the 1/2 game is there. On top of that the bad beat is 345k. Second bad beat 320k. Third bad beat 305k. I know, I know. I have a better shot at getting in a car wreck but I have been at the table before when the bad beat hit.

Anyhoo. I get AQ in early position on my third hand. I raise it to $11 and get four callers, great. The last caller had limped right next to me on my right and was the last one to come along. He nearly folded. The flop is 3Q3. I like my hand here okay because none of the blinds came along. I bet half the pot. One caller and folds around to guy on my right. He min check raises. I call, Other dude calls. Turn is a 7. Guy on right makes same bet. I tank. I have played with this guy before. He could be making a move with a strong ace. I just could not put him on the 3. I think for three minutes and fold. It was early and you know never go broke with a queen in you hand. The other guy moves all in for $11 more. The guy on my right says good fold. He flopped quads. Other guy had A6. I like that guy. I asked quads dude if he almost folded. He said yeah but there were too many in the pot. Duh. Set mine baby, set mine. Or quad mine. He hit a set with 3's later. His cards.

I was down to $120 then. I dwindle down to $50. I look down at 77. I limp and we see a flop 5 ways. A T 7 rainbow. Cha Ching. I lead out almost the pot, $9. I get min raised by the tightest guy at the table. I put it all in heads up. If he has a set of T's so be it. AT or higher is more likely. He says I guess I call. That is a good sign. I sweat a bit when an ace peals on the river. He flips AJ and I am near $100. I go on to flop sets with T's K's A's and J's. I cash out for almost $300. $250 up from my low point. not bad. The set of Aces was sick. I raise in the big blind and get one caller. Guy's first hand. Flop is AQ4 two hearts. I bet half the pot. He calls blank on turn. I bet half the pot and he moves in. I call. He has AQ. Sick for him.

All in all I played well. I did donk off $55 with AQ. I should have raised pre flop. Flop is 8Q8. I bet and one guy min raises me. I call and the turn is an Ace. I call all the way down and of course he had the 8. He would have folded if I just had given him a reason. I learned how he played though. Use it next time.

This gentleman in the one seat kept talking at me the whole time. I was in the 4 seat. He gave a play by play of every hand and acted like we knew each other. He was a jack ass. He exposed his hand (KK) while there were still two people in the hand. I know sir. Aces always come when you have kings. He then asked to see a losing hand that mucked. He was not even in the hand. That is when I knew he was a douche. Luckily he got the vibe from the table and soon left.

Rapture

2011-05-22T09:57:00.002-06:00

Now I laughed at the dude who used SCIENCE on the Bible to figure out the end of days. It really is brilliant if you think about it. He gets all of us to buy in if he gets the geeks involved. Anyway, I went to church yesterday afternoon just to be sure. Priest said every day could be your individual rapture day. Just take it one day at a time. This is it. Your own. Personal. Rapture. Anywhoo we went home and upon leaving Gods bunker, I noticed big thunderstorms to our west. Living in Kansas, one gets used to Wizard of Oz weather. I know people from SOCO that absolutely shit when a thunderstorm comes through. They get in their car and go to the basement of a parking garage. Ironically the exact opposite of where one should go during a earthquake. Real Kansans go outside when there is a tornado near. Gotta see that thing. Though I have lived in Kansas all my life and have yet to see one in person. And to be fair I would probably shit if I ever experienced an earthquake.

So we drive home and it is around 5:00. I read a report that the Rapture would begin at 6:00 central. It's bright and sunny but looking ominous. We drive home, I crack open a beer and have a snack. Around 5:30 it clouds up. 5:45 we get reports from Topeka television stations of tennis ball sized hail. I am starting to believe. Who knew ground zero for the end of days is Topeka Kansas? Stephen King maybe? Hell on Earth actually is Topeka. Or possibly Pierre South Dakota. 5:59 the tornado sirens go off. Shit. So much I wanted to do. See Ireland. Win a bad beat jackpot. Junk punch Howard Lederer. Finally talk my wife into the forbidden love. You know. Sex with the lights on.

We enact our Zombie plan. I usher the family into the attic. Zombies can't jump. Then the wife says "What about the Tornado". Fuck. We rush downstairs. We can only hope the Tornado gets rid of the Zombies. I go outside and nothing is happening. It is 6:05 and so I let the whole family join me in the cul de sac. Turns out The Rapture consists of sprinkles and six more Sam Adams 48 IPA. Delicious. We get another tornado warning at 10:00. Rapture aftershock? Still nothing. We go to bed an hour later. Lights off.

As I sit here writing this today, it is absolutely gorgeous outside. We have all the windows open. It is sunny. I have had a doughnut and two cups of coffee. I am going to serve at the soup kitchen in an hour. Softball after that. Steak for dinner and Trivia tonight. The Royals are at .500. It might me the end of the world. Oh well. This is not bad at all. There could be worse endings.

Just one hand.

2011-05-19T08:24:00.003-06:00

Played in my home game Monday night. Bought in for $70. Cashed out $310. Nice night. One of two big hands. Got into it with the two biggest donks at the game. Donk one was sitting nest to me on my left. Donk two was across the table in the big blind. I limp after two others with king jack of diamond in the cut off. Donk one raises on the button. He had been doing this a lot light. Donk number two calls and I call as we see the flop three ways. KQ3. Two spades. One diamond. Checks to donk one and makes a weak bet. Donk two flats and I push all in. 1 thinks and then calls. 2 thinks for a second and calls. Turn 9d. Meh. River 3c. I turn over my hand and it holds. Donk one had some kind of crappy flush draw. No where near the odds to call. Donk 2 had K8. Thanks you all.

We then decide to play Omaha for an orbit. Last week I got beat up pretty good in Omaha. I had AAQ5 double suited. Nice hand right? I make a pre flop raise to $5. It is a .25/.50 game. I get called in two spots. Fucking gamblers. Flop is JsTs3d. Carl bets. Biggest fucking gambler there. I raise my flush draw, gutty, pair of aces hand. All in. He thinks for a while and says he has two pair. Really? And you are going to call? He does. We ran it twice and I lost both times. I was %70 after the flop. I lose to J3.

Fast forward this week. They wanted to play Omaha again. I said I would but would complain. I limp with QQJT. Flop is Q34 rainbow. Hammer lock. I bet and donk one call. Ten on turn puts 2 clubs out there. I still have the nuts. I move all in to just take the pot. He calls. River T. I win. He had the nut flush draw again. It is a nice game.

Harrahs yesterday. Bust out of the tourney again. Guy made a sick call. I limp in the cut off with 3d5d. Small blind 3x raises. I call and we are heads up. Flop is J94 two diamonds. He makes a weak c bet. I read it right and move all in. He thinks for a while and calls. He had KQ. I guess the gutty put him over the edge. No diamonds and IGHN. He thought he was behind. He told me. I made the right read and move. I needed those chips for the super turbo that the Tuesday afternoon tourney at Harrahs is.

I sit down at a cash game. Only one regular there. They are all over at Ameristar chasing the Bad Beat. It is over 300k. There is over a million including the reserves. Anyway, this is the best table I have sat at in a while whilst at Harrahs. Passive. Easy to read. I double my stack in about half an hour. Should have left. But. There always is a but. The guy directly to my right in the 2 seat is throwing away money. I got into a hand with him early on. I had AK he had A9. Ace on the flop and he called me down. If I had known I would have moved all in . He would have called. Or better yet let him drive the action. That is how bad he was. I watched him drop over $1400 in three hours. The people that were there before me said he had dropped at least $600 more. I stayed. I donked off $150 trying to get in a hand with him. Never happened. Funny thing is he told me he moved out of my seat because he was losing so much money. Was not the seat sir.

Well HI

2011-05-11T10:44:00.002-06:00

Went up to Harrahs yesterday to try my luck at old guy sit n go tourney. I was card dead except for one hand. It is early in the tourney and I get 33. The black ones. I limp in late position and we see a flop five handed. The flop comes the Ten of clubs and the two red 3's. TBQB's. It is funny how unaffected I(and I assume others get) when my quads are flopped. Check like you got nothing. There is no racing heart. No sweating. Just sit back and hope someone makes a full house. No such luck for me here. I won a little from a guy with a small pocket pair.

I bust out in the small blind with 64. We see a limped pot 3 ways. K63 flop. Check Check Check. The turn is a 6. I only have about 1000T left and the pot is 600T. I bet 500. Big blind folds and the other dude smooths. The river is another K and I have to push. Of course he has the K and I go home. I still do not know why he checked that. Almost cost him 1000T. He tried to give me his money.

Went to play cash and immediately was seated at a brand new table. My buddy Cliffy just happened to be there as well. I was up and down $30 either side of my $200 buy in for about an hour. I am a little bit above dead even when I get JJ in early position. I like to limp with jacks a lot. It is a strong enough hand that I can re raise the loose player but weak enough that if I can't re raise, I do not feel like I have made too big of a mistake seeing a flop five handed. We see a flop 5 handed. Bingo Ac Jd 7c. Blinds check to me and I bet a little less than the pot. Fold Fold and the small blind, Cliffy, min raises me. The big blind folds. I think for a bit now. Cliffy is a straight forward player. I never see him get out of line. I know he has a hand, but which one. AA is not really a possibility. He would have definitely raised with that in the small blind. AJ? Maybe, but that is unlikely knowing my holding. A7. Real possibility. KQ clubs. Maybe, but the min raise is a move I would expect in position, trying to get two free cards. 77? Most likely here. I am pretty sure that is what he has. But he could have two pair, flush draw, or the dreaded AA. Probability in that order. I decide to raise it $50 and find out. I want the flush draw gone and I think two pair still calls and 77 is not going anywhere for sure. He calls. The turn was a ten of spades. He immediately bets out $50. KQ clubs? Can't be he would have folded on the flop betting. He never chases. AA is the monster that is creeping out of my mental closet. I can not just call. Fold or push. I am not good enough to fold. I move all in and he calls. He has 77 and my jacks hold. I am not sure what his bet on the turn was all about. He eliminated any chance of folding with it. He later told me he almost folded on the flop, but folding a set is just too hard. He said he thought I had JJ. If so, why lead out at the turn? He must have talked himself into two pair. I do not know.

Anyhoo, I left later that afternoon up $300 on the day. Nice.

See ya

Live games

2011-04-20T07:07:00.002-06:00

Obviously. Online is on hiatus. Live it is if any, right? The feds did my bankroll or lack there of, a big ol favor. Suck it Lederer. But I digress.

Played live at the normal Monday game. Played super tight. Picked up AA and raised it $5. .25/.50 blinds. Get one caller. I sensed he almost folded but then saw the look in his eye like "I have position. If I don't hit I will just outplay him". Well that is what he tried to do. He "asked" for the flush on the river and when it got there I checked. He obliged with the bet that said I was stealing. I called and took down the hand. Ended up $90 on the night.

Emboldened by my success, I made plans to go to Harrah's with by buddy Slick. He is moving in three days, so this was our last hurrah. We get there in time to play the tourney and eat lunch. Our standard is the $5 last longer and we each buy %10 of each other. We unfortunately get the same table. Slick can't get any traction and is out early. I limp along and at the first break I am about even. 2K The blinds go crazy after the first break so you have to really start making moves. I am lucky though because I have the button to start. It gets folded around to the cut off plus one and he min raises. The cut off calls. I peak at my cards and see AA. All in and one caller and I have more than doubled up. Nice start. I limp to the final table with about 4K. I start making moves and chip up. Every one is so timid. The chip leader is a lady who had gotten AA five times in a little over an hour. It seemed like every time someone moved in, she had AA. Once she had TT vs AK. Ace on flop but the tens out flushed the ace. She was just sucking up chips. She never played unless she had a great hand. She could have just bullied us but she did not.

I hit some good hands and at this point it is push or fold poker. I start pushing it with anything decent if folded to me in position. I call a min raise with 66 on the button. Three players see a flop of 953 with two clubs. The check. Original raiser checks. I push. Fold Fold. The original raisers says he had 88 but just could not bet. That is the kind of table I was playing. He puts anything in the pot I go away. I steal and push my way up to second place which was still only half of the AA lady. The 88 suggests a even four way chop. I was torn. I knew I was the best player left. If the cards fell right I would win. But I was at a chip disadvantage and one unlucky or bad move and I get $140.00 for fourth. I was a little surprised when she agreed to an even chop. $295.00 a piece. Just a little under 2nd place money for all of us. We took the money and ran.

I owed Slick $25 for the percentage buy which was a nice little refund for him. After tip I was up about $210.

$300 in two days. Hey maybe I'll go pro. HA

I Tried

2011-04-07T11:05:00.003-06:00

Gave Full Tilt one more try. Same old same old. Tournament bust out hands.

AA < 9T
KK < AK
33 < TT set over set
JJ < 88
KK < A8 AQ and A5 case Ace hits
AK < KT

I was not short stacked in most of these. Raises and more raises and I get out drawn.

Should have known better. I can't even be mad at FT. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Yada Yada.

Poker is just not for me.

Poker I think Is dead to me

2011-03-09T16:22:00.002-06:00

I raise 3 1/2 times the blind. He calls from the small blind and bets it like he knows it is fucking coming. I smooth the flop and push the turn. All the while thinking to myself, "Here it comes. No, it can't possibly come. Can it?

Obviously it is not about the money.

I played yesterday at Harrahs. I was playing tight. Never raising. I get QQ om early position and raise it up. I get one caller in the big blind. Flop is rainbow nine high. I bet. Call. The turn is a 2. Rainbow and no pairs and no coordination. I bet again and get called. The flop is an ace. He checks and I groan and check expecting the two pair weak ass ace. He turns over Ace Ten. Really. Calling me down with ace high no draw. Fuck me.

I limp with 46 on the button. Flop is Q57 two hearts. Check, check, check to me. I bet my draw. Call call. Turn is a 7. Check, check to me. I bet again. Call call. The river is a queen. Check check. I bet again. Fold (88) and instant call. After I showed he said "Nice hand sir" and turned over his ACE TEN FUCKING HIGH WITH NO FLUSH FUCKING DRAW HAND. I asked him if he was mocking me. He told me if he was going to mock me, he would do it to my face. I told him I thought he just did. It wasn't as if he had a read on me. He was by far the worst player at the table. He was just looking for any excuse to keep calling. This really is my fault. I never should have tried bluffing him in the first place.

So, I think I am done for a while. I will still follow the bloggers and dabble with home games, but I cannot continue to suffer the abuse.

See ya around.

Poker Musings

2011-02-17T12:07:00.004-06:00

Just a couple a stories from this week.

I went to Harrahs on Tuesday. It had been a while. I had intended to play 1/2 but it was full. They had just started a 3/6 limit game so I sat down with the intention of moving to the 1/2 game when a seat opened up. I used to play limit a lot when I first started playing live. It is really no fold 'em hold 'em. I sat down with the usual cast. Mostly older retired guys. I chipped up a little here and there. My turn came to move and I decided to stay. Why you may ask? Well there were three donating station at the table. I wanted to get my share before my tournament started. One guy was $300 down in an hour. Not easy to do at this limit if you show any starting hand restraint. He went so far to say that he does not play junk. He exposed his hand to me during play. He held T8os. He had called a pre flop raise. The flop was AK8. He called a bet and a raise. The turn was a ten. He called a bet and then folded to a raise and re raise. The river was another ten. He slams his hand down hard so hard in disgust that the whole table looked at him. Horrible etiquette. He would have lost. Another player had KT.

I got into a hand with this gentleman later. Harrahs has an aces cracked promotion every day. First five aces cracked wins $100. There was one left when I look down at my cards under the gun to find AA. Now normally in a 3/6 limit game I am raising here to drive out the ever fishing limpers. But here I am encouraging action. The promotion stipulates that there must me at least $30 for the hand to qualify. Imagine my delight when we saw the flop seven handed. Okay, the thirty dollar limit is a cinch to be hit. The same old guy with the T8 bets out from the blinds on a non face card board with two clubs. I am just calling all the way now. Two more come along for the turn which is another small club. Old dude bets and I smooth call again. We are heads up. Oh I have the ace of clubs so if the next card is a club I have position to raise and still make some money. The old guy bets six in the dark. This is just silly. He knows he does not have the nut flush. His action is not going to induce a fold, the cards are. If another club comes he has to think he is getting check raised. A heart fell and his J6 of clubs held. For a mere $18 investment I win the $100. I'll take it.

I was playing on Full Tilt last night. I have no money on the site so I am utilizing my large amount of points to try to build a bank roll. I enter a satellite to a crappy free roll. There are 10,000 people in it. Along the way I get moved to a table that had every single person sitting out. Not one other player was participating. It took me about three hands to figure it out. Quick folds all around. I went about four rounds that I just min raised and took down blinds. The blinds were 60/120 I think so I beefed up my stack nicely. It finally ended when I busted a short stack. Has this ever happened to anyone before? It was unique for me. I noticed that FT must have some kind of contingency for it because play slowed between hands. It was not as instant when you have live play. It was not all short stacks either. There were two huge stacks who must have left because they knew they could fade the bubble. It made internet poker feel even more lonely.

Dexter

2011-02-14T17:53:00.001-06:00

Anybody watch Dexter? I just started watching it and I am hooked. I burned through the first two seasons in a couple of days. It intrigues me that I find myself rooting for a serial killer to not get caught.

Super Bowl

2011-02-04T17:06:00.001-06:00

Pittsburgh You heard it hear last. Take Pittsburgh. Take them to win out right. Take the over.

PLO8

2011-01-27T12:22:00.003-06:00

I played the WBCOOP PLO8 event last night. There were 483 runners. I finished 42nd. Got a $16 ticket. I think I figured out how to make money on line. Play games you have no idea how to play and play simple. I have played a total of four hold em tournament and sit n go's over my online career. Horse in included. I have either won ore gone deep and cashed in all of them. I must be over thinking my hold em game.

This is my first time playing on Poker Stars. I just recently downloaded the software. I kept timing out last night. Does anybody else have that problem? Full Tilt runs great. I may lag there every once in a while, but I never miss a hand.

I may be naive, but who are all the people playing in this thing. Are they bloggers from over seas? The largest blogger event I have ever seen on Full Tilt is 120 or so. Right? There were over 700 runners in the hold em event two nights ago. Who are these people?

Vegas Tid Bits

2011-01-25T15:45:00.002-06:00

Just got back from Vegas. Did all my poker playing at mostly the Golden Nugget and Binions. There are a couple of noteworthy stories.

First story. I am sitting at a 1/2 game at the Nugget. I am in the eight seat. The guy in the ten seat is a regular and has a nice amount of chips. We play for a while and he starts to nod off. He had been drinking quite a bit. I have to nudge him to act. No one was sitting in the nine seat. He always came to a little confused. Looks at his cards, folds and goes back to sleep. Pretty soon the dealer waives me off and we let him sleep. Don't do that in a sports book, but poker tables are okay. I have never seen anything like it. He slept through ten rounds of blinds. He had the missed blind button in front of him. He did not have the absent button though. Never seen that either. He was present. Just in body only. Anyway, he finally wakes up and gets a little snippy with the dealer. "Why did I miss my blind?" I told him he had missed 10 blinds. He gave a sheepish grin and apologized to the dealer. The table just laughed at him. He ordered another beer and when I decided I had enough poker, he was falling asleep again.

Second Story. At the Golden Nugget again. I get there in the morning and all they had available was a must move 1/2 game. It was only four handed. I decided to sit down and see what was what. As I sat down I looked at the stacks to see what I was up against. The one seat had about $700. The four seat had $60. The six seat had $400 and the nine seat had about $1500. They had been playing for ten minutes. My $200 seemed a little paltry. I sat down and it soon became apparent what was going on. The nine seat was a maniac. The first hand I saw had the one seat re pop the nine seat opening raise. Nine calls and the flop comes 787 with two hearts. The one seat c bet and the nine seat moved all in. One thinks for a moment and then fold KK face up. Nine says he had a huge draw and he folded. We played for a while and he bluffed and bluffed and bluffed. Showing nothing and taking pots. He would blind raise $50 under the gun. He would call with the razor slim draws. I just had to wait and get a hand. He was drunk. He was a nurse who was moving to Denver on Thursday. His phone kept ringing. Turns out he was on call. He did not go to work when called. His wife called multiple times. He did not talk to her. He was on his last Vegas blow out. It was fun to watch. He was fun. Me and two other players just sat at the table waiting for our chance. Tourists would show up with $100 or less and go broke in short order. They could not handle the heat. He would get in horrible and just draw out on them for their tiny stacks. His K2 ran down KJ on a KKT32 board. His AK running down JJ on an KQJT3 board. He rivered sets with 22 multiple times. He was a fun drunk and a big opportunity for those of us with the poker knowledge and the stack to get it. The floor kept trying to make us move, but we all refused. He finally gave up.

My chance came early. I held 9d7d in the big blind. He blind raised under the gun and was called in two spots so I called too. The board was 6d5d3c. I like my hand and check. He bets $25 and we get heads up. The turn is the 9c. I move all in and he calls. the river pairs the board and I show my hand. He nods and mucks. I have $400 now. Two orbits later I get QQ utg. I limp. He bets out $30. It folds around to me and I push $400 or so in. He calls. My queens hold up. I have $800. He won't mess with me anymore. I wish I could say I got more but he lost 2K and left.
I was getting up leave two hours later and guess who came waltzing back in? Denver nurse had to go home to shower and "set the wife straight". I had to go. Too bad.

One other story. Denver Nurse gets into a hand with the ten seat later in the session. Denver was leading the action on a AK4 board. The turn was another ace. Denver bet and the ten seat moved in. Denver folded. After Denver left the ten seat told us he had AA there. I asked one, why did he push, and two, why did he not show the high hand? He said Denver told him there was no high hand. There was and it was for $268. On top of that, the Nugget doubles it between 2 a.m. and 2 p.m. It cost him $536. Ouch.

Hey you, yeah you with the cigarette. I'm talking to you.

2011-01-19T08:17:00.002-06:00

Cigarette smokers. What is (most of) your deal? Why do you insist that the world is your trash can? I was running an errand the other day and was getting out of my car at a local business. While waiting for my very pokey seven year old son to exit the vehicle I witnessed a lady pull up across the parking lot from me. She exited her car and as she did she took one last puff off the cigarette she was holding. She then proceeded to deftly flick the half smoked cancer stick on the ground. Now lets get this straight, I am not anti smoking. In fact I am an avid second hand smoker. My mom was a two pack a day lady. She paid for it with her lungs shutting down at an all too early age of 69. I miss her terribly. But, her fifty plus year habit instilled in me a love of that first drag off the cigarette. Second hand of course. I can really do without the rest. She used to sit in bed chain smoke and read the evening newspaper. The ash on the end of the cigarette would get almost an inch long. I always thought this was awesome. I never observed other smokers doing this. I thought my mom had some smoking super power. But. I digress.

In short pick up your butts. Please do not leave them on the ground for the rest of us to deal with. I love Anchorman The legend of Ron Burgundy. Everywhere the action news team went they littered. It is funny because it was extreme. Throwing a burrito out the window as just an example. I can not tell you how many times I have been following a car only to see an ember come flying out of the window. Once it even hit my wind shield square on. So I ask, again. Why? Are smokers in general just assholes? Are smokers just morons and do not realize this is littering? Let me know.

Another smoking story. I often play at Harrahs Kansas City. The poker room is "non smoking". Smokers have a tendency to congregate at the entrance of the room. This requires all poker room patrons to pass through a concentrated fog of smoke to enter or exit the room. The smokers are really in the room. They all like to stand there and smoke so they can see the tables and not miss their hands. To battle this, management put up a rather large sign at this smokers corner. The sign roughly reads: For the Enjoyment of All Poker Room Patrons, Please Refrain From Smoking in This Area. It is placed right at the corner that all the smokers like to smoke at. I had just busted out of the daily tournament and was waiting for my cash seat. I sat at the last slot machine in a row that is basically in this smoking corner. In fact the smokers regularly use the platform that the slot machine rests as their ash tray table. So, I am sitting there waiting for my table and notice the ash tray. A player gets up from his game and head towards me. He promptly lights up, takes one drag and leaves it sitting in the ash tray to go play another hand. The sign is right there. It is less than a foot away big as day. His addiction was so bad that he had to have one puff and leave the still smoking cigarette for me to deal with. Asshole. Another smoker arrived shortly and noticing the sign and ash try said, "That is not right". He then promptly moved the ash tray ten feet further out of the room. It had the same line of sight, but just ten feet farther. Nice move.

So smoke em if you got em. Just don't leave your butts laying around. And please show some common courtesy and don't smoke in my face.

WBCOOP

2011-01-13T12:36:00.001-06:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: XXXXXX 508206

Little Update

2011-01-13T08:26:00.003-06:00

Not much going on around the poker front. I had pretty well getting hammered all around so I took a three week break. No casino or online play. I have played in home games, but I consider that more for fun. I tend to relax and drink a little at home games. I rarely drink at the casino or when online. I am going to Vegas next week so I will jump back in out there.

The Chiefs had a nice little run. I would have liked to see play off victory, but worst to first is pretty awesome. I hope all you Chiefs fans enjoyed it because the schedule next year is brutal. The Chiefs get Green Bay, Chicago, New England and Pittsburgh. Ugghhh. Say hello to 6 and 10. I hope the fans give Haley a pass though. The Chiefs are young and quick success is often followed by a tough season before the team makes a big splash in the post season.

My Kansas Jayhawks are having a good season. They got a road win against an Iowa State team that is pretty good. I do not care what team you are, road wins in conference are like gold. Ask Duke. Florida State handed them a loss last night. KU looked pretty good last night, but at other times they seemed to be sleep walking through portions of games. They remind me a little of the 2007 Florida team that was trying to repeat as champions. They seemed to phone it in on a lot of occasions. They knew how good they were and just did not seem to care a whole lot. They knew they had a switch they could hit and their A game would kick in. Florida lost a few games that year they should not have, but then kicked it in and took care of business in the Tournament. Kansas seems a to have a little of that to me. They will dominate a team for ten minutes or so and then it seems that they get bored and let the team scratch back.

Oh almost forgot. You people living in the south are pussies. Well, at least the weather channel people make you look like pussies. Four inches of snow. Really? Eleven snow plows for the whole city of Atlanta? Really? Atlanta has a fleet of city trucks. I know they do. All cities have them. Buy about 100 blades and put them in a wharehouse. When all hell breaks loose and a whopping 4 inches of snow in forecasted, attach those blades to said trucks. That is what we do here in Kansas. We got 9 inches here at the same time Atlanta was getting 4. Not a word on TWC. They said oh look it is snowing around KC but the sky is fucking falling in the south.

and the home of the CHIEFS!!!!

2010-12-28T11:03:00.002-06:00

Who would have thunk it? AFC west champions. The fans here are just so happy to have meaningful football this time of the year. The Chiefs can lock up the third seed with a win against the Raiders. This game is still important. The Chiefs get a home game to be sure, but the Raiders game is important for the second round. If, and it is a big if, the Chiefs beat, probably the Jets, then they would get the second seed on the road. That would be either the Ravens or Steelers. I would rather go on the road against any of those teams instead of the Patriots.

I think the Chiefs are hard to beat at Arrowhead. But, the combination of a young team and first time in a long time playoff game could mean a quick exit for the Chiefs. Either way it is going to be fun.

Poker?

2010-12-21T20:00:00.004-06:00

Not sure what I am doing with poker. I have such a defeatist attitude toward the game right now. I played a home game last night. I almost double up with QJ on a queen high flop. The big blind had a worse queen. I then get AA on the button. Limped to me and I pop it to $5. The big blind is .50. Get only the big blind to call. Flop is QT9. Check and I bet the pot. He calls. King comes and I shut down. Checked down the river and he has QJ. I end the night losing with 77 to 66 or the rest of my stack. Flopped set. Slow rolled me. It was only $40 but this sessions loss hit me harder than usual. I feel adrift and drowning in the game. It would appear to the casual observer that I am smiling and dancing when in actuality I am flailing and sucking down water. I can barely see over the water line. I don't even have the energy or the care to get upset about the beats. I accept the AA and 77 loss as a matter of course. I I I. There is not I in poker.

I do not know. I had a good time in Vegas playing poker. I won a tourney at Treasure Island and then about a hundred on a 2/4 table at the Flamingo. Net up for the trip.

I am done with Full Tilt for a while. I have a couple of bucks on Cake. If I can not manage to run that up, I am probably done with online poker for the near future.

Enough I's for now.

Later Gator.

Suck IT Lederer

2010-12-01T10:16:00.007-06:00

Full Tilt hates me.

A red phone rings. A hand reaches out from a deep sleep and answers "Hello?".
An gruff voice on the other line responds, "Mr. Lederer, he is on the grid, sir". "Have you called Ferguson and Gordon?", asks Howard Lederer. "I will call them next sir". "Very well, thank you Mr Matusow, back to work". "Yes sir" and Howard hangs up the phone.

Howard gets up from bed, grabs a robe to cover his naked body, and stumbles over to a grand fire place that has been imported from Italy. It is old and made of the finest marble. Hand crafted by gypsy artisans. It is worth more than most peoples cars, but money is not an object for Howard. He makes fireplaces in mere minutes in rake. It bores him.

He glance over his shoulder to make sure his wife is sleeping. Satisfied, he reaches up and and pivots a small painting that hangs on the wall above the mantle. The safe that is revealed has a keypad. He punches in the numbers, 4 8 15 16 23 42 and the safe opens with a small click. Inside reveals only a single red raised button. Howard checks his wife once more and pushes the button. The whole fire place from the floor to ceiling swings silently as it rotates Howard into a small room on the other side of his bedroom. He steps off the hearth as the fireplace continues silently to its original position.

A motion detection light flickers on to reveal a grand staircase the descends into the darkness. Howard ties his robe as he starts down the stairs Lights in front of him illuminate and the ones behind flicker off. He comes to the bottom of the stairs and is greeted by Mike Matusow. The Mouth is sitting behind a plain office desk. The desk is adorned with only a lap top and a Full Tilt coffee mug. "Hello sir" "Hello, Mike. What is he playing?" "He's in the $20K Rush rebuy sir". He is doing quite well". "Okay, are the others on the wall yet? Mike checks his laptop, "Coming on line now sir". "Very well" says Howard as strides to the door. He enters another code and the lock buzzes and the door slips ajar. Mike gets up and follows Howard to the door. Howard stops and with a scowl asks "What are you doing?" Mike stammers and says "I I I j j j ...just thought..." Howard cuts him off mid sentence. "Have you payed me back the two mill I loaned you to pay Forest? Have you?" Mikes eyes go to the floor as he answers a sullen "No". Howard's eyes bulge and his brow raises as he forcibly pushes Matusow back towards his desk. "Get your ass back to that seat and get me my money" Mike mutters "Yes sir" and skulks away.

The door swings in as Howard enters the room. He takes his annoyance at The Mouth out on the door as it slams hard against the frame. In front of him is an array of large televisions on the opposite wall. On one of the monitors is Chris Ferguson. On another is Phil Gordon. Lederer takes a seat at a large desk command station that has a commanding elevated view of the monitors. He looks much like a one man mission control. "Hello gentleman" as he sits down. Phil asks, "Where the hell have you been?" "Yeah" says Jesus. "It was fucking Matusow. He wanted to come in". "Did you tell him to get his ass back to work and get us our fucking money?" asks Gordon. "Yep" answers Howard. Jesus just chuckles.

Howard says "Give me a second" as a porn starts playing on the the biggest monitor. "That's better. Now lets begin."

"Where is he?". "He's table sixty one, seat eight 20K rebuy" answers Jesus. "How do you want to play it tonight?" Gordon asks the other two. "I say we end it quick, I am tired" answers Howard. "Naw, we are already up and I am kind of excited" pips in Jesus. "Me too" says Gordon "Let's make it last" as he unbuckles his pants. "Fine" says Howard..

"Okay, lets start off with a little hit just to warm up." smirks Lederer. As he presses a button on the panel, table 61 pops up on a large monitor right below the porn. All the players cards are revealed. "Ohh, I see Mike was right. MorningThunder has over thirty thousand. Easily in the top fifty." chuckles Jesus. "lets do something about that." murmurs Lederer as his robe falls open.

On the monitor with porn, a woman is exposing herself to the camera as an unseen man directs her every movement. The poker screen shows MorningThunder with pocket kings. Steve 1256 has QQ and a stack of about seven thousand. The flop comes king seven two. "Do it." Jesus spits as his pants slide down to his ankles. Howard hits a button and a queen falls on the turn. "Yeah" whispers Gordon. "One more". Lederer hits another button and the case queen hits the board. "Oh yeah" the threesome moans as their hands slide down their respective bellies and come to rest on their cocks.

"Now tease him". blurts Ferguson. "Make him think all is well with a huge draw". Lederer types in more commands. The porn screen shows a woman orally administering a huge cock. The poker screen shows MorningThunder with a king and queen of spades. UpayMyTuition has a ace and a jack of different suits. It is limped pre flop. The flop is jack ten three with two spades. Money is bet. The turn is another three. UpayMyTuition bets and MorningThunder pushes all in, his tournament life on the line. On the porn screen the woman is choking on the male porn stars huge member. He is holding her head and it appears that she will soon pass out or vomit all over his crotch. The threesome moan as they lather their hands and start stroking their cocks with lotion. "Not yet" purrs Phil. "You bet" whispers Lederer as he delivers the ace of spades on the river.

"Now another little hit" coos Jesus. Howard types with his left hand and the poker screen flashes. MorningThuder has 99. SeniorPoopPants has JT and moves in his short stack from the button. MorningThunder calls. The porn screen shows the the woman being penetrated from behind. The camera zeroes in on her nether regions. The male stud abruptly withdraws his cock from her pussy. The poker monitor shows a flop of 973. The turn is a two. "Yeah" sputters Lederer as his breathing increases. On the porn screen, the male model violently shoves his cock up the unsuspecting starlets ass. She screams as does the three poker stars. The river brings the eight of clubs. "That is so hot" murmurs Gordon. "I am almost there" echoes Ferguson. "Just one more" moans Lederer.

The poker screen blips and MorningThunder has KK. TooPhat238 is under the gun with a jack and two of spades and limps in. Three others limp. MorngingThunder raises to ten times the blind. The blinds fold and TooPhat238 calls. All others fold. The porn is really going now as the male is pounding her ass over and over. It is hard to tell if she is enjoying it or just crying from pain. The flop comes ten four two with no spades. TooPhat238 checks. MorningThunder bets the pot and is called. The turn is the three of clubs. On the porn screen the dude is grunting wildly and really slamming her ass. She is falling off the arm of the couch and begging for him to stop. He ignores her. The threesome are beating off furiously now. "Almost there" cries Ferguson. "Do it" moans Gordon. Lederer uses his left hand to hit the last key. The key that will put them over the edge. MorningThunder moves all in. TooPhat238 calls.

A guy is sitting in his apartment in New York City. He is yelling at his screen. "What the fuck Full Tilt? I pressed fucking fold. I pressed fucking fold every time. Why won't you FOLD?!!!!!" On the porn the stud removes his cock and fires jizz all over the starlets asshole, back, and pussy as she groans. The river comes. But it does not come immediately. It waits a tantalizing, agonizing two seconds to reveal the two of diamonds. They can not hold it off anymore. Howard, Phil and Chris, erupt simultaneously in a cyber circle jerk frenzy. A guy in a New York City apartment jumps up and down in sheer joy. He is now in the top ten in chips and goes on to win the tournament. A nice four thousand dollar score. The porn star grabs the the porn starlet by the hair and shoves his cock in her mouth. And somewhere, in eastern Kansas, a lap top smashes against a fire place.

The three poker magnates compose themselves and sign off while avoiding contact. Howard cleans up the mess he has made, using his robe as a towel. He exits the room and throws the soiled robe in Mikes face. "Clean that for tomorrow". "Yes sir" gasps The Mouth as he breathes the robe in deeply.

Lederer ascends the stairs as lights go on and off. He hits a button and returns to his room. He climbs into bed and dreams of how he would like to fuck MorningThunder in person.

Please Tell Me I Am Not Alone

2010-12-01T09:15:00.002-06:00

I am mired in the worst run of cards in my life. I played at Harrahs yesterday. Sat down at the tourney and was feeling good about my game. I chip up and then chip down a bit. I get 22 utg and limp. We see a flop four ways as it comes out 246 with two spades. The small blind checks and the big blind bets the pot. Now this guy is a true novice. He was confused about how the blinds worked. He acted out of turn and did not understand the betting structure. He only bet when he had a good hand. He also was a short stack. His bet seemed to scream strength to me. My first thought was "straight". I decided to just put him in then to end the suspense. To my surprise, the small blind called my raise. The turn was the ace of clubs. I put the rest of my stack in. The small blind calls with A7 of spades. The big blind had indeed flopped a straight. Good thing the small blind came along. Now if my hand holds off the flush I break about even. The river brought the oh so beautiful case 2. Sigh......quads....beautiful. I asked the flush guy what he was doing in the pot. He was crippled. He said he just loves flush draws. Yeah me too.

Our table breaks and I sit down next to an older lady that plays ABC poker. I was feeling good. I was reading the table perfectly. I felt like I was easily better than most of them. Arrogance....sigh.....beautiful. There was a lady that came along with me from our original table. She was hitting sets on flops like crazy. The only problem was she was betting the crap out of them and showing after the folds. I saw her call pre flop raises out of position only to hammer the pot when she had flopped top set. She never checked with the intention of check raising. I got into one pot with her where I could not get her to fold second pair. She called with weak hands and hammered strong ones. I was gonna exploit that later if I could. I get AA and get two callers. The flop is queen high and I bet the pot. The only other good player eyes me up and down and then folds. A shorter stack moves in with AQ and I win. The other good guy said he had AQ as well. I should have checked it and won more..damn. I limp with 66 and flop a set. Check my big blind with 96 of spades and see a six high flop with two spades. Limp with 77. Four of us see a flop of AA7. GIN!!!!. The abc older lady to my right bets half the pot. Now I KNOW she has an ace. I decide to pop it four times her raise. She just calls. All right, no high cards please. Six on the turn and she checks. I say all in and she instant calls. She flips AJ as if she has won. I show my boat and it holds. We have the biggest stacks at the table and it bumps me up over T10,000. Easily the chip leader. We started with T2000. There were only T76,000 in the whole tourney. I am doing well.

I get moved again. I have chipped up some more. I have a stack now and loosen up a bit. I call a button raise of two times the blinds with KQ. This is the same guy who said he folded AQ earlier. The flop is queen high. Check raise him all in. He thinks and calls. He has JT for second pair and I hold. I now have over one quarter the chips in play. Cruise to the final table right? Nope the poker gods had plans for me. Build me up to a fantastic fall.

I am sitting nest to a crazy Asian guy. He reads no situations just cards. The old rock at the end of the table was only playing if he had great cards. Caizian got it wrong every time. He is a shortish stack. I raise in early position with TT. Folds to him in the big blind. He pushes with AQ. Ace on the river. Ok, just a ding. A few hands later. I call a button raise of his with 99 from the small blind. The flop is J high. I hesitate and he sighs and starts to push his chips in the middle but stops himself because I have not acted. I check called his all in. He had QT of hearts. He runner runners the flush. Now he has me barely out chipped. We play for a while and he shows down garbage. I get TT again and call his early position push. He flips over JT. JT!!!!. Jack on the flop and I go home. He ends up winning the thing. Good Grief. I know none of these are bad beats, but if I just win one of the three I probably money. If I win the first one, I probably win the tourney.

The Beats Go On

2010-11-29T09:46:00.003-06:00

I wish I had good things to say about poker lately. The best thing is I gained another follower. James Aiken. Turns out he is a pro in the UK. Welcome, James to my bitchy (currently) corner of the web.

I am letting Full Tilt settle a bit. It seems I does not want me to stay sane. Therefore, I turned to Cake poker. They have a $3K rebuy tourney I have taken down a couple of times. I chip down a few times and rebuy once again. I get my first big hand of the night with AK in the big blind. UTG limps in as do five others. I have about T3000 left and the pot is around T1100 so I just push. Happy to just take it down The utg instant calls and everybody else folds. Uh oh. AA for sure, right? Nope K8os. K8 OFF SUIT. Bitchy story, he flops two pair and I can not catch up. I rebuy now. I hit some hands and after the add on I am in the middle in chips. I chip up some more with a nice run of cards and I am in the top fifteen with 50 left and 25 getting paid.

I pick up AA in the big blind. I will ask it again, is there much else better than getting AA in the big blind in poker? Maybe the button? Anyway. Middle position raises it up four times the blind. I am the last one left so I pop it up to T4200 about a third of my stack. I like to do that here because it screams AK and I am just trying to win right there. He instant calls. The flop is 899. I push the rest of my stack. He instant calls. Drum roll.......... he has?????? 77.
Yep, he called off three fourths of his stack with 77. Turn is a K. No flush or straight possibilities. The river is the 7. Super well played sir. I can;t bitch, he did what I wanted him to. I sold AK and he bought and went with his read. The poker gods just like messing with me right now. Oh gods of poker, please let my %95 hands hold once in a while. Thanks MT

Prayer over

Fired up FT thinking maybe the mojo had switched to Cake. Played a $3 bounty tourney. I get to the final 14 with a decent stack. Finally get AQ and push. The big stack calls with JT just because he can and busts me. It was a fifth of his stack. Is this the correct play? Is this how a lot of you sit n go guys play it? Get a commanding lead and call off 1/5 of your stack to try to bust players and/or get bounties? I always thought a big aspect of sit n go tourneys is preserving your chip stack. I really would like to know, because I can not seem to play these things correctly. I have been playing them for years and have yet to take one down. Second a few times, but never first.

I will keep playing, but I may need a new laptop. Mine keeps flying out of my lap at the end of my tournaments for some reason.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T00:14:00.000-06:00

Enjoy the day. Enjoy the football. Enjoy the nap.

AAAAAAAAAAAnd ON

2010-11-18T10:28:00.002-06:00

More humorous than anything now. All in on turn. He called down my pot sized raises the whole way.

Aaaaaaaaand On

2010-11-18T10:05:00.002-06:00

Will it ever effin end?

And on

2010-11-17T17:06:00.002-06:00

AIPF

The beat goes on

2010-11-17T10:15:00.002-06:00

All in pre flop

Full Tilt s telling me something

2010-11-17T08:49:00.002-06:00

Sat down to play a fun tournament I found on Full Tilt. It is the $10k guaranteed $1 re-buy rush tournament that starts at 9:40 or so. The first time I played I took 159 out of over 2000 runners. I have not cashed since, but I love the format. Top prize is usually over 3k. I was playing last night and went up and down. I had chipped up into the money with about a thousand runners left. I get AA in the big blind. Is there much better than AA in the big? There is a limper and a min raiser. Two more limpers. Blinds are 400/200. I pop it up to T8400. Big over bet, trying to look like a steal. Limper folds and the original raiser just flats. We are heads up. The flop is 3c4c8d. I bet the pot and he flats. Hmmm. The turn is the Jh. I push all in and he instant calls. He is all in. I am in for 2/3 my stack. Any idea as to what he had here? The river is the 8c. And he flips over KcTc. Trying to give me his chips. That pot would have put me in the top 30. I still have 15k left and keep going. I am up and down a bit and then down to 11k. I pick up AK in the big blind. Blinds 800/400/. Folded to the cut off who makes it 2200 to go. I push my 11k. He instant calls with JTos. for 3/4 his stack. He flops and then turns two pair and IGH.

I fire up a $6 ko sit n go and this happened

I took it as a sign and turned off the computer.

Woke up this morning and fired up a $2.20 cash out tourney, just to mess around. I lose half my stack with AK. On a JsKs9h3dQs board where a guy in position is just calling me down. I check the river and fold to his all in bet. I have T1500 and get AK utg. I raise the pot and get called. Next guy min raises and I push in. Original limper folds and the min raiser calls. He has TA DA 56os. The flop is AK7. Turn 8. River 9. I call him a donkey and he says sorry he was priced in. Yeah because you priced yourself in. Are you really priced in here? He had to call T1000 to win T2200. Are you really priced in when the best you can hope for is what he got, up against two overs? I really want to know readers. Do you ever make this call because you are priced in? It meant calling off over half his stack.

Praire Band Casino.

2010-11-15T08:44:00.002-06:00

Months ago my buddy Prasad asked if I wanted to go to an Indian casino, Prairie Band, on a Friday night. I gave my wife plenty of notice and that day was Friday last. Prasad was telling me how they spread a 2-5 game. I have never played above 1-2 before, but he said the game was pretty soft. It turns out I got myself into a game with a bunch of regulars. I picked a hell of a time to move up in limits. I had the worst run of cards I had ever experienced in my life. I saw AQ or AK four times. AJ, 33, 44, 66, 88, 99, JJ, and AA exactly one time. I got KK once in a chopped pot. I played for eleven hours straight. And the marginal hands I did play were getting drawn out on.

My best play of the night was when I started out seated at the feeder table. I get a walk with A7os in the big blind. Flop 7A5. Bingo. The small blind bets out. I smooth call and the button min raises. I go from bingo to uh oh. 57 flashed in my head. I had been playing with this guy for a while and he had been active. This is the type of bet he would make with that hand. The only other hand that fit for him here is A5. I could not put him on a set. The turn is a nasty 5. We check to him and he bets over 3/4 the pot. Now I know I am beat. The small blind folds and so do I. I flash him my cards and says "me too". I asked if he had top two pair as well. He only had an ace. His eyes got huge when he saw my lay down. I was right though. The button flipped up 57 for the boat. He was so proud. If he only knew.

I got moved to the main table and things just kept getting worse. Fold after fold. I finally got short and went broke on the nut flush draw. I reloaded and started to fold some more. There was this crazy Asian woman sitting at the table. She put the sickest beat on a guy to my left. She was calling all pre flop bets with any two cards. It got heads up on the flop of 423 when she bet and he moved all in. She called a $400 flop bet. The pot was over $500. The turn was a ten. The river was an ace. He had flipped over her jacks after the flop. She was standing holding her cards. She looked at the board, looked at her cards, back and forth. She very deliberately and smugly took one card out and placed it face up next to the the ace on the board, pairing it. He other card was a seven. Yep. A7 calls $400 bet on a 423 board. JJ guy was reeling while the rest of us salivated. She announced she would leave when she got to 2K. She only had $150 to go. If I could only get a hand.

The night wore on and I had little to no traction. We are playing five handed. The lady is still there. We are there because she is there. I get AJs and raise it up. She calls and we are heads up. Flop is Ac9h2d. I bet out $50, which is a little less than the pot. She calls. The turn is the 4d. I bet out the pot. She calls and only has $6 left. I toss the $6 in the pot as the river is dealt. It is the 9d. I flip over my hand. She does the same thing that she did with the JJ guy. Can you guess what she had? J2 of diamonds. She yells "frush" and tells the dealer to "give me his money" I had my hand to get paid and get screwed by the poker gods. I win that hand and I am back to even after a horrendous night. She goes broke soon afterward and reaches in to her pocket for $150 more. She busts again and goes to do it again. The dealer asks if she can short buy again. We all about scream YES!!! I finally pick up AA on the button. I raise it to $25 knowing she is going to call from the big blind. The board comes J high and we get it all in. She has J2 again and my aces hold. She has had enough and the game breaks. The last hand gets me to only a few hundred down.

Prasad tells me that there are usually three or four more like her. It was just a slow night. I was just not my night.

More Matter

2010-11-10T09:29:00.002-06:00

Went to Harrahs to drop off my weekly $50 donation to the luck fest they call a tournament. I did just that in three hands. I call a five times blind raise with AJs. I get heads up with a older guy who has just open raised every hand of the tournament. Flop is JJ7. Woot Woot. He continue bets and I call. Turn is a blank. He bets bigger and I call. River is a blank and he bets bigger and I push. He has 77 for the flopped boat. IGH. On to cash.

I had played about half of hour of cash before the tourney. The last hand before I have to go to the push fest, I pick up KK on the button. Four limpers ahead of me, so at least I can pick up some dead money. I raise it to $15. The small blind folds and the big blind makes it $45. Folds around to me. I decide to just call. I am in position and can get away from the flop if an ace falls. The guy I was up against I had played with a bit. He is tight aggressive and easily could have aces or even as low as AK. I was on the button, so he could put me on a steal. We had even stacks so one of us was probably gonna double up. If no ace flops, I am pretty much committed to the pot. The flop is T73 rainbow. He pauses a split second and pushes out a stack of $100. This is a bit over the pot size. The size made me think he did not have AA or TT, the only two hands I am really afraid of here. I think he bets smaller with those hands. $100 felt like QQ or JJ. He wanted to win there and was getting rid of AK. I think this through for a moment and move all in. I have him covered by $10. He has to call and does. I flip over my kings and ask if he has aces. He gives a slight shake of the head and I know I am ahead. He does not show his cards. The turn is another 3, great. The river is the very nasty Qh. My insides fall a little in anticipation of the bad news. He shakes his head and mucks and I am up $180 in half an hour. Nice.

How do you feel about opponents not revealing their hands on all in hands? If he had hit his jack, it would have felt a lot like a slow roll. I know it is not, it just feels that way. I do not mind it here because he called my all in. What really gets me is the guys that I call down and do not show. It not raging mad, just annoyed.

I went to another table after the tourney. I was absolutely card dead. I saw zero pairs and one big ace in the first three hours of play. This is where Zen and the Art of Poker has really helped me. I just kept repeating it is not my turn in my head. In the past I would have pressed and lost money. I just waited for the cards to turn. The guys at my end of the table kept needling me. I just told them the truth. I got T3 four hands in a row. Q2, 86, J5, all the goodies. I did pick up KK in the small blind for the chop. There is a bad beat at Harrahs, but he did not have a cheeseburger hand. When my cards did come, I stole some blinds. I finally strung together four playable hands in a row and then started to get action. I picked up AA in the small blind and flatted a raise from utg. I flopped a set and won a small pot. I hit a couple of flushes and another set and ground to a $167 profit. Up about $350 for the day.

There was one guy at the table who could not lose. All the cards came to his seat. He left with $1300 for his eight hours of work. The one big hand I saw was his 22 vs KQ vs KQ on a 2KJ4 board. The set was betting the whole way and both KQ called the whole way. One had picked up a flush draw, but still bad calls. he won a $700 pot there.

Matter

2010-11-04T08:50:00.004-06:00

My high school physics teacher always used to say matter is just stuff. I just have some stuff today.

I missed the Very Josie last night. It starts just a little too soon for me here in the central time zone. Kiddos are still getting to bed. I did make the Mookie. I bubbled. TT vs AQs of NYRambler. I can not win a race against that dude. gracie That was my 4 year old typing her name.
Anyhoo. I ended winning a 27 man $6 sit no go later for around $65. Felt better.

I went on my weekly Harrah's run. I sign up for the tourney and have an hour to kill before I meet my brother for lunch. I try to get on a 1/2 game, but all that is open is a 3/6 limit game. I take the seat and proceed to win $100 in about thirty minutes. I then get my 1/2 seat and win another $30 before lunch. Nice to win my buy in for the tourney, lunch, and another $50 to boot. Nice hour of work.

Have a good lunch with the brother. When we were getting seated, I asked the hostess if my brother had come in. I see her every week so she knows who I am. Turns out my brother is right behind us. I say there he is and throw him some homemade chex mix I brought for him. The hostess said that was a nice thing to do for my little brother. Now I am about three inches taller than him but about fifty pounds lighter. I am also eleven years younger. I told her she was mistaken. She would not believe me. I even told her about the age difference. She thought I was full of shit. My brother has been blessed with a full head of dark hair. I have been gray and getting grayer for about ten years. I also am a losing some hair up front. I can see how she made the mistake. But if you look closely at us, his face shows the real story.

I played the tournament. Starting stacks T2000. Took some hits early and was down to T850. I look down at 33 and limp. Five of us see the flop. J53 rainbow. The big stack utg pushes all in. Now, he had been doing this a lot. Every time he did it he showed top pair. He even did it with the nuts. He never slow played that. No matter I am getting it in with my set here every time, obviously. It was just cool to know right away. I knew he had AJ. He was the epitome of playing your own cards. Down right disbelief and anguish registered on his face when he saw my cards. It never occurred to him that he was behind. I doubled up and had my original stack back. I chipped up along the way and had about T4400. I knocked out a shorty and had about 5k. I lost a bit and needed a hand because blinds just went up to 400/800. Let the push fest begin. I get KK utg. Whew!!! I push and the same guy, who is still the chip leader says "I have to call". He has AJs. I flip over my hand and he again cant believe he is behind. Ace on the flop and IGH. I hold here and I am one of the chip leaders. That guy amazed me. I stole from him some. He always bet his hand if he hit. He never got sneaky. I would have really beat him up with a stack. Oh well.

The cash game afterward was great. I lost half my buy in early. I had two 2/5 players on my left just splashing away at the pot. I play super tight. I finally get KK in ep and rerasie it $15 to the utg player who made it $5. Four of us see the flop of KJT rainbow. I should have bet out, but I shut down. I was convinced utg had AQ. It checked around. The turn brought the ugly Q. Utg ends up having AT. I played it ok. I don't know. I guess I should have bet out the flop and see where I am. I think I was just intimidated by the guys to my right. Weak I know.

I get KK again and bet it the same. Same four callers. Flop comes eight high and I push. I win. One of the 2/5 guys leaves and I move one seat over from the one seat to the two seat.. I hit AA three times and get paid. One time by a LAG that called off $170 with I do not know what. He raised pre flop $10. Three call and I pop it to $50. He calls and it is heads up. Flop is 9 high with two spades. I bet 3/4 the pot. He flats. The turn is the 4 of diamonds. He agonized over the turn when I pushed all in. He finally calls off $100 with I do not know what. The nasty four of spades comes out and I am sure I am crushed. I flip over my AA and he folds and leaves. Yay me.

I limp utg with QQ. Three callers around to lp. One guy raises to $20. The button moves all in for $60. I move all in. The button asked for the exact flop he had earlier when his 22 flopped a set. The dealer obliged. He flipped his cards over while telling the dealer thank you. I casually turned mine over and the button calls me a butt hole. The door card was a Q. Q24. Turned quads. If the river came 2 we win a bad beat. Close as I had ever come. The other guy had JJ.

I hit KK three times. Fun seat. I end up #340. $470 or so for the day.

I will be in Vegas for a family thing December 6-11th. Nice coincidence heh? I will try to make it over to the IP or wherever everybody is. I really wanted to play the tourney.

Whew!!! Found It!!!

2010-10-29T15:08:00.002-06:00

Been a while. My computer got sick. Really sick. It kept redirecting my searches. It would not let me get on blogger. I could not get on Full Tilt or Cake. It took me four days and a friends help too realize I had smss.exe. Nasty little thing. I had to reset my computer back to factory settings. Works great now.

No online poker, but I have been playing some live poker. Played at Harrahs Tuesday. I went out in the tourney right in the middle. Older gentleman open raises. I call and we are heads up. I had about starting chips. I have QJs. Flop is J83 with one spade. He over bets the pot. I read this as he wanted to win it there with brute strength. I should have shipped it. My gut said I was ahead. The call committed me. It was half my stack. I just called. The turn was the king of spades. He pushes all in. Barely had me covered. I beat him in the pot. He turns over 9Ts. I receive the six outer when the 7h comes. Blind aggression pays off some times. I don't think he folds the flop if I push.

Played cash after that. Up and down. Up a bit on my $200 buy in. Go to the bathroom. Get a drink. Come back and two new guys are sitting to my left. I sit down and straddle in middle position. I get 99. First new guy limps. Second new guy raises to $20. We are playing 1/2. I call. First new guy calls. Flop is 975 rainbow. Bingo!!. I just check, obviously. First new guy bets $`0. Second guy pops it to $20. Me? I crap my pants. I'm getting paid. Woot woot. I decide to raise it up another $100. First guy instant calls. If you have 68, well played sir. He was short though, only had around $60. Second guy agonizes. I have him where I want him. He has an over pair. Everybody knows it. He finally folds JJ. First guy has QQ. Turn is a 7. River is a J. Dodged a bullet. Put me over $400 in my stack. I go home happy.

In the tourney, there was a guy sitting next to me that just kept on complaining. He kept forecasting doom. And it came. Was glad he left. I can handle most people at the poker tournament, but those guys just bug me.

The Chiefs

2010-10-25T09:19:00.002-06:00

Things are looking good here in Chiefs country. They are 4-2. A full two games up in the loss column over the Raiders. The Chargers are cooked. They have a Tennessee at home, then on the road to Houston. And, they still have to go on the road to play the Colts. Denver is done too.

That leaves the Chiefs and Raiders. I do not know what to make of their sick 59-14 win over the donkeys. Unless they start backing it up, I am going to call it an aberration.

I think 9-7 wins this division. If the Chiefs can hold serve at home, they go 9-7. That is 5-5 the rest of the way. Granted one of those wins would have to come against the Titans. Not easy. But road games at Denver and St Louis are winnable. The Raiders have to win six to get there. They too have five home games. They get Seattle, Indy, Miami and KC . They have to win all of those and pick up a road win to get to 9-7. Jacksonville is really the only option. The other road games are KC, Pittsburgh, and San Diego.

I am not ready to anoint KC the AFC West Champions. It is just really fun to explore the possibilities. The Chiefs should bet the hapless Bills next week at Arrowhead. If Seattle can somehow knock of Oakland on the road, then I would buy the banner.

Zen

2010-10-20T09:50:00.002-06:00

I have been reading Zen and the Art of Poker. I am only half way through it but I think it has helped me out quite a bit. My last two big losing sessions at the casino would not have happened if I had read the book. The biggest ideas I have taken away from it is the idea that it is not my turn and learn to love the fold. In my past two losing sessions I called (ugh) all in against the nuts, and in the other I pushed with a weak holding that had little hope of pushing the original raiser off his hand. Yesterday, I broke even and felt pretty good about it. I was on one of the biggest action tables I had seen in a while. I was card dead. Stone dead. I kept repeating my mantra. "It's not my turn". Over and over. My original $200 had dwindled down to $60 over three hours mostly due to a nut flush not getting there and my only pair, 99, running into a shorties AA. Finally the dam broke. Got KK and took down some blinds and limpers. Read a player right and called down his bets with my AT. He had 57 off suit, ace high good. I pick up 77 and it was my turn. Flopped a set on a 79Q board, in position. Early position player bets the pot. Me and my neighbor call. Turn is the five of hearts. This puts the flush draw out there. The original raiser bets $18 and my neighbor flats. I push all in for $51 more. The original raiser tanks then calls. My neighbor super tanks and says he thinks he is priced in now. He finally folds T8 for the flopped oesd. I wish he had called after the four of diamond blanked the river. The original guy showed a naked queen and said he made a bad call on the flush draw as well. I am pretty sure he just had a queen. I have played with him a lot and he is a pay off wizard. I flop another set with 66 later and I end up even for the day.

Zen worked for me this day. There were many times in the game that I felt like pushing with less than great holdings but then listened to my mantra.

I bubbled the tourney as well. It got heads up and the stacks were near even. The lady did not want the chop. First was $544, second $344. Of course she lost. Cost her $100 or so. It never ceases to amaze me how often people fail to realize the nature of this turbo tournament. It is a crap shoot at the end. Take the guarantee and do something else.

Ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

MOOKIE WIN!!!!!

2010-10-13T21:54:00.002-06:00

Took down my first Mookie tonight. It was a deep, tough, and talented field of five.

A win is a win.

Say hello to the defending Mookie Champ.

Boo ya!!!!

The Other Side

2010-10-13T10:40:00.003-06:00

Gotta be fair.

They say you have to get lucky to win tourney's. I did so twice here. Third time was not the charm as my JJ went down to obvious min raised AA. Could not get away since my open raise pretty much committed me to the pot. Ahhhhhhh.

Satan Does Exist

2010-10-10T00:15:00.003-06:00

Back door flushes prove that.

Got that from lighting.

True. Too True.

At least it happened in the cash. Won $37. First was over 3k.

Some things

2010-10-08T07:08:00.003-06:00

Went to Harrahs Tuesday. Not much to say played for three hours at a 1/2 table. Left up $70. I'll take that win rate. I wish I could have stayed. I was sitting at one of the weakest tables I have ever seen at Harrahs. When I got there I took the seven seat between two guys that seemed to be having a good time. Lively conversation and all. I talked a little with them and they were nice guys. Their ideas on poker were fun too. The guy to my right told us that he rarely folds a suited ace to a raise. Great! Then they both agreed that they preferred KJ to AJ. I almost blurted out "donkey hand", but stopped myself. The drunk lady in seat 4 was spewing chips. The rest of the table was all ABC. It is probably the first time ever that I have sat at a table and felt like I was the best player there. I had played for an hour and had not raised a thing. I look down in the big blind and find QQ. Raise it up to $15 with three limpers. Fold, button calls and the small blind calls. Flop is ace jack junk. I c-bet and get called at both spots. The turn is another blank. OK. I am done. I slow down and check. The button instant shoves all in. The small blind (I play any suited ace dude) beats him into the pot. The button has A4os. The small blind has JhTh. The river is the jack and the small blind wins. That is the table I was at. No awareness of what is going on with calling the first raise. They were playing their cards and it did not occur to them that it was the first time I had raised since I sat down. And the small blind getting himself all in on that board. I don't know how he could think he was good there but he did.

Fun stuff

Word of the Day

2010-10-08T07:07:00.000-06:00

Pudenda

This is Just How I Roll

2010-10-07T16:46:00.001-06:00

The money went in on the turn. FML

Edit: Umm I meant flop.

The Mighty Duece Four

2010-10-06T07:48:00.002-06:00

For Poker Grump

The Chiefs

2010-10-04T00:03:00.002-06:00

I would have bet any amount of money that the Chiefs would not be the only undefeated team left in the NFL after four weeks. I will also bet any amount of money today that the Colts will beat the Chiefs next Sunday.

I am just glad to watch some meaningful football. It has been so long since Kansas City has had anything to cheer about with the Royals and the Chiefs being equally pathetic. Even with two tough road games at Indy and Houston in the next two weeks, the Chiefs will still be tied for first in their division at worst. Then the schedule gets super soft. Hell they get to play the NFC west.

Can not predict if they make the playoffs, but it will be fun to watch football that matters to me.

Flopped Full House, The Other Side

2010-09-29T08:48:00.003-06:00

This is better.

In interest of full disclosure.....

We did not get it in until the turn. BTW

Really!?!

2010-09-29T00:43:00.002-06:00

Exploring new ways to lose. Just %99 to win after the flop.

Fuck you Waffles, I run way worse than you.

Tingly Down There

2010-09-27T08:44:00.004-06:00

Is there anything better than picking up Aces?

I was playing the $4.40 Rush tourney. I had recently doubled up and was sitting in the top five with about 23 players to go. Top fifteen get paid. I get rushed to the next table and find myself in middle position with AA. I go through my normal quick check off when I get a big pair. My position, stacks sizes I am up against and how am I going to play it, pre-flop post flop whatever. How am I going to maximize value here. I tend to talk to myself at the computer. I am verbalizing all this when under the gun plus two (2nd in chips) open shoves. I giggle a little and mutter "that decision is taken care of". I sit for a split second as my elation turns to worry. God I hate poker sometimes. I am getting ready to call a bet that can double me up and I am holding the nuts. But, all I can think of is the bad beat that is coming. Sick I know. I guess it has come to this. It is easier to expect the beat down while holding the nuts than getting excited about winning with the nuts and getting snapped off.

As you can see it all worked out in the end. I doubled up and took the commanding lead. What a great play with JJ eh? That guy should teach a class on how to never ever play JJ. Just plain awful.

I made the final table pretty easily. FT got me. It is not that it gets me, it is the manner in which it does. I took a race for half my stack with 55 in a battle of the blinds all in pre flop. I win and I have a commanding chip lead over all but one other player. 55 < AK. The board comes out T787T. Counterfeited. Damn. Would have felt better losing to an ace or king. Getting counterfeited feels so dirty. Still have chips enough to make moves, about 15K. Blinds were 800/400.

First hand of the final table I get 4 limpers with me in the big blind. I have 23of clubs. Flop 4c5c8s. The small blind bets and I push. The big stack flats as does the small blind. I hit the flush and the big stack pushes. Doh!!!. He flips over the nut flush and I am drawing to one out. No such luck and IGH in 9th.

Nuff Said

2010-09-24T22:12:00.002-06:00

Notch a piece of cake

2010-09-23T20:04:00.002-06:00

Just went out in Cakes 30+3 4K guarantee bounty. Second hand. I have JJ. UTG min raises and I just call with the big blind. Flop is 9J6. Original raiser bets half the pot. I just smooth call. Turn is 6. Sweet I have full house, now worry about flushes. He bets the pot. I smooth call. The river is another 9. Damn, that is gonna kill my action. AA and KK slow down for sure now. I bet half the pot. He min raises me. Ok, I push and he calls and tables 66. One outed on the river. You never see quads coming.

So my last three tourneys have had flopped trips beat by runner runner straight, runner runner flush and my turned full house lose to turned quads.

How am I running?

FT curse is back

2010-09-22T23:52:00.002-06:00

Just lost my last two sit n go's. 66 vs AsKc and KK vs AA. Both times I flopped a set to get way ahead. The sixes lost to runner runner flush. The KK lost to runner runner straight. It's like I am being punished.

farfromgroovin.

Poker Bleh

2010-09-22T10:01:00.002-06:00

Went to Harrahs yesterday. I made the most horrendous play I have made in a long time. I get in a cheap flop with Q9 from the small blind. Flop of 9QK hits. I bet $10 and get called in three spots. The turn is a 6. I slow down and check. The big blind bets $60. Folds around to me and I think a bit before calling. River is a blank 7 of hearts.. There were two spades on the flop. I check and he bets $200. That puts me all in. I deliberate and finally call. It was obvious to everyone he flopped the nuts JT. I knew it too. My brain was screaming at me to fold from the turn. My brain was sending off 5 alarm bells on the river. It was like I was mesmerized. I guess I just wanted to be a hero. Never go broke with a pair of queens in you hand. Right? I could only beat top pair or the busted flush draw. No way he bets that way. No way. The kick in the junk of the whole thing is I told myself I was going to play until my big blind, but decided I had one more round in me. If I had just got up I would have booked a smallish $60 win. Still $20 an hour. Instead I went home broke and dazed and severely disappointed in myself. Expensive lesson.

I played on Cake poker last night for the first time in a while. It was a $5.50 re buy and add on. I got in for the minimum $15 consisting of the double buy to open the tourney and the add on at the end of the re buy period. All of my big hands had lots of all in action and all held up. I ended the re buy period as the huge chip leader. I cruised to the final table, never falling below fifth place. We were playing ten handed with blinds 3k/6k ante 500. I limp with KQs under the gun. We see a flop five ways. Ts8s3s. Can you say GIN!!!! There is already 40k in the pot and I have about 62k left. I decide to push and take it down here. I would be second or third in chips. It folds to the big blind who instant calls. He has about 70k left. He has the As4h. Of course the final spade hits the river and IGH. I win that pot and I am in first place. The fool. He puts basically his whole tourney life on the line as a %70 underdog. I fade that spade and I have a great chance of winning another $650 or so.

So there you have it. No justice in poker. I donk off into the nuts and get drawn out on by a donkey.

Bleh

Good things come

2010-09-08T12:14:00.002-06:00

to those who wait.

I finally won one of these after about a bajillion tries. The best I had done to date is third a few times.

Got down to three handed with a short stack and a Lagtard that had about my stack. He busted the small stack and we played heads up for about 10 hands. I took a small chip lead when the final hand cam up. I have 89os in the small blind and limp. He checks and I flop gin!!!! T76 two clubs and a heart. I check and he checks. He must have something here because he always bets. The turn is the QH. I bet 3/4 the pot and he raises me about half his stack. Awesome. I push all in and he calls tabling Qc6C for top pair and flush draw. The river blanks and I win. Woot. Woot.

You may notice the picture in the background on my desktop. It is from a room in the Bellagio taken by Astin. Drop by his blog and see it, it is pretty cool.

On Fire

2010-09-07T00:59:00.002-06:00

Went to Harrahs last Tuesday to play the daily 1 pm tourney. You have to get there three hours early just to get a seat. Ridiculous? Absolutely. It used to be a 60 man tournament. Now it is only 30. Dealer shortage. Yeah, OK.

Anyhoo, I have about a hour to kill until my brother gets there to meat me for lunch. What to do? What to do? Craps of course. I buy in for $100 to get rated and wait for the current roller to finish before placing a bet. He craps out and I put money on the pass line and $1 on the fire bet. The fire bet is a bet you make when a new roller is coming out. If he makes four points during his roll you get 40-1, five points 200-1, all six and it is 500-1.

He rolls a six. Bam!! Next roll a six. Rolls a ten. Bam!! Next roll a ten. He hits the five and eight relatively easy. Within ten minutes, my little dollar is $40. He then rolls and makes points that he does not need to complete the fire bet. Until finally a nine. Bam!!! Rolls another nine. My buck is now $200. Been playing for just twenty minutes. Now he gets stuck on nine. He sets nine as the point and hits it another two times. All the while rolling fours left and right (the only point left to hit the big bet). Finally he rolls a four. And four rolls later, another four. Bam!!!! $500. Just like that. I left for lunch up $700. First place in the tourney only paid $300 or so.

Slick was sick. He did not go that day and he loves the dice.

I bought my brother lunch.

Later at the cash games, I ran into the scariest poker player I have ever seen. He was snapping off bluffs left and right with bottom pair. He would look at them and say, you missed your draw, I call and always be right. It was creepy. I stayed out of his way. He had $1500 in front of him in a 1/2 game $200 max buy in. I flopped a couple of straights and ended up $70.

I played video poker while waiting for my seat and won $3.25.

Good day all around.

Holy Cow

2010-08-31T08:23:00.002-06:00

I have posted more in August than I did in all of 2009. My fingers are on fire.

Rush smush

2010-08-29T23:24:00.003-06:00

Just busted out of a rush tourney.

Here are the two hands that did it. I got it in good as %80 or better and lost of course. Howard Lederer grrrrrr.

Hand Answer

2010-08-28T10:36:00.002-06:00

Here is what I did.

I had just over T2000 left. I was gonna push on the small blind, but when the high jack pushed all in I stopped. It was kind of funny, because when the flop came out, I muttered to myself, "I'm goin broke this hand". I used my time thinking of what to do. The first bet did not concern me near as much as the push all in. The high jack could easily have KQ or JT. It felt like a straight to me, so I folded. The small blind called and they flipped over....QJ for the small blind and AQ for the high jack. Damnit!!!! The turn and river were blanks and I would have nearly tripled up.

This is the paradox of poker. You make right decision and fold and it feels so wrong. Then you make the wrong decision and call and are rewarded with a suck out and it feels so right. It is so hard not to be result oriented.

I made the correct decision here. I just ran into the one time where I am ahead. What are the odds that the other two queens are out there for the oesd. I never even considered that possibility. One opponent, sure. Two, never.

Another Hand Question

2010-08-27T09:21:00.002-06:00

Playing on Full Tilt. $3 KO Tournament. In the first hour you get QQ in the cut off. It folds to the high jack who calls the big blind. You make a pot sized raise. The small blind and the high come along to the flop. The flop comes JT9os. The small blind bets the pot. The high jack pushes all in for twice the pot. You have them covered but barely.

What do you do?

Here

2010-08-26T07:48:00.002-06:00

Played poker up at Harrahs Tuesday. Not much to say. Booked a small win $58. Played some craps while Slick played the tourney. Turned $60 into $180. Then two guys showed up and started playing the no pass line hard. Snickering when a ten or four was rolled for the point. The table mojo changed instantly and wiped me almost entirely out. I had only $20 left when it got to the last lady that had not rolled since they showed up. I played the pass, and the fire bet, again and she rolled a few sevens and an eleven. I had a little breathing room. I had waited for her to roll. She had hit three points twice and was responsible for my now blown winnings. Well she turned out to be too much for the bad juju duo. She rolled and rolled and rolled. She hit four points, which qualified for the fire bet. She hit the hard ways. I had put $1 on all of them and at one time had them all parleyed. She rolled the hard four back to back and my $1 initial bet yielded me a cool $111. She rolled a nine to mark her fifth point. I had all the numbers covered. It was awesome. The negative duo where hating life. She rolled and the first one came up a six and the the second one sat on 3 for a split second and then tumbled on over to the one. Ah sooooo close. The five point fire bet payed 200-1. Oh well, the 4 fire bet got me another $40. I cashed out for a $220 profit. I had started with only $20. Nice roll ma'am.

Cash game that night was ok. Grinding. Two big hands. A9s turns the nuts and I get doubled. KK I opened for the raise, seven times the big blind. I get two callers in the blinds. Flop comes 752 rainbow. The big blind bets 3/4 the pot. He is aggressive and he could have anywhere from air to a set. I put him on making a move at a non scary pot. He thinks I am playing AK or AQ. I raise enough to commit the other guy and scare off the big blind. The other guy calls quickly and the big blind thinks a bit then folds. The other dude turns up 75os for top two. Well played sir. The turn brings a 2 and I get the re-suck. Thing is, he is now kinda pissed. Whatever. That is the way it goes. Ran QQ into AA later, but ended up about $80 for the session. Not bad.

Ripping of the Goat

2010-08-23T14:57:00.003-06:00

WEEKLY DOSE OFF AWESOME!!

ala Julius Goat

Look out for the Devil.

In order to be fair

2010-08-20T11:51:00.003-06:00

Just thought I would be fair to Howard and Full Tilt here. As you can see I got it in bad pre flop and got lucky. So....Howard, I will ease up on the junk punch when I see you.

This was a little $3 KO tourney. We get down to less than 20 and I need a hand. I am in the big blind and I see AKs. Woot woot. UTG goes all in ahead of me. He is shorter than me and this happens.

Sorry Howard, back on.

This close

2010-08-20T10:14:00.005-06:00

So this happened...

All in preflop. He instant called. WTF!!!!

All in knowing he is racing at best. Phenomenal poker.

I was oh so close to launching my laptop across the room. I had picked it up. I ended up just forcefully throwing it down on the couch.

I was playing a $6 token tourney. I got AA in my next big blind and I got five people to pay me off. I doubled up on the original 77 guy and never looked back.

Maybe, just maybe.

I do not even care anymore.

2010-08-19T12:54:00.004-06:00

Played a $4 Rush sit n go on Full Tilt just now. I am just numb. Here is how I lost the first chunk of chips after chipping up early. I raised pre flop and bet nearly the pot on the flop. He flatted both times. I slowed down after the turn and paid off a small bet on the river. I am obviously playing poker wrong.

Here is where I busted out. I called the pre flop raise and re-raised all in on the flop. He snap called. Puke.

I played the Mookie last night. I had this nice hand.

That old wheel is gonna roll around once more. It's just so effing slow.

MT

Bounty

2010-08-18T22:20:00.002-06:00

SHIP IT!!!!!!

Tuesday crew day

2010-08-17T20:27:00.002-06:00

Made the traditional field day trip to Harrahs. We like to play the $30 old man tournament game. We get there at 11:25. The tourney starts at 1:00 p.m. I go to buy a ticket and there is only one seat left. The three of us pass and decide to play cash. When we started going to the boat, the tournament was 60 peeps. Now it is down to 30. Just stupid. We have to leave four hours before the tourney time just to get a seat. They say it is because of a dealer shortage. Are we not in a recession. Coach up a black jack dearer and get them in there. How long does a potential dealer have to go to school before he or she can deal. It has been way too long. It just keeps getting whittled down. They say bye September it will be back up to 50. Yeah right. Harrahs room is going to shit. We literally had to wait 5 minutes to get our name on the list for 1/2 today. They were talking amongst themselves. Harrahs just does not care about the player all that much anymore.

On to 1/2. I sat down with $200. I got in some hands early with some big draws that did not get there and was down to $65 in about 15 minutes of play. I then limped with 35os from the button. Flop come 559. I bet smallish and get one caller. I coax $20 more out of him before he folds on the river. Next big hand is KK. There is a $11 raise and three callers ahead of me on the button. I raise to $30 and get called in two places. The board comes all low cards rainbow. They both check to me and I bet a little less than the pot. I get one caller. The board pairs on the turn and I push all in. If you have a six sir, the super well played. He thinks and then call. the river is a blank and he says nice hand and folds. I get AA a little later and open raise to $15. I get three callers on a KJ2 rainbow board. I bet 3/4 the pot and get one caller. The turn is a 8. I but $70 out. He tanks for a whole and moves all in for $12 more. I call. The river is a ten. He flips over KQ and I am in the black. I chip up some more and then get 88 utg. I limp and the flop is seen six ways. I comes out 789 rainbow. I check and it folds to the guy that I busted with kings earlier. He bets smallish and me and one other player see the turn. What a turn. It is a 9, pairing the board. I decide to bet it out $20. Representing the 9. The original raiser makes it $60. The tag a long goes away. I think for a minute and ask him how much he's got left. About $100. I announce all in. He calls quickly and tables T6 for the straight. I flip my full house and he is dead. I am up nearly $400 for the day. Slick and I play a few more orbits and get out of town. Ended up $360 for the day. Fun Fun. That guy hated me.

Ooops.... I did it again

2010-08-17T02:18:00.003-06:00

Was fun. Had to get really lucky. 88 and KK flopped sets against AA to get big stack. Also lost with AA vs KK. The 88 hand was the only one where my tournament life was on the line. And MemphisMOJO, I will take you up on that offer.

Nice little score

2010-08-16T12:27:00.001-06:00

Gotta keep it going, keep it goin full speed...

Too much

2010-08-15T11:05:00.002-06:00

I went to far. Many apologies to all of you. Bad MT. Bad.

Sorry for the outburst. It just gets so old. How can I lose every hand when I am a huge favorite?

No excuse.

Will do better.

I am not even kidding. FUFT

2010-08-14T20:50:00.003-06:00

FU FT

This is how I roll. Absolutely fucking ridiculous. The dude was donking off his chips. I call the pf raise. He moves all in on the flop with fucking air. Of course it was not air. FT let him know somehow that I ALWAYS get drawn out on. ALWAYS.

CUNT CUNT CUNT CUNT CUNT CUNT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FUCK ME.

FT

2010-08-13T15:52:00.002-06:00

I just do not learn.

FT got me to reload with their new Quick Pay method. They said they would give me $20 for $10. Have not seen a dime of that money. So I play a couple of $3 ko turbo tourneys. The first one I just wilted away until I had only T1000 left or so. I chip up to T3000. There is a small raise utg and I have AK. I ship it. The big blind calls and the original raiser calls. Original raiser was short. Less the an T800. He does not really matter. OR had 66. Button KQ. River is Q. Fuck you.

Wait a couple of hours and try again. This time I chip up and have a nice stack around T10,000. I am in the top ten with about 37 left. I pick up QQ on the button. One mp limper and then the chip leader bets 10k into a 800 pot. This just reeks of AK or under pair. I call as does the original limper. Limper has AJs. Button has AKos. Limper wins with runner runner flush. How does this keep happening? I mean really. I knew I was racing at worst. Fuck me. How does Full Tilt keep rewarding horrible play. AJ call off all chips against a huge raise and flat call. Yeah, gotta be good. It would be fine if my fucking hands would hold. Just fucking once.

I have said it before and I will say it again.

Full Tilt is a Cunt!!!!!

Mad Genius

2010-08-13T15:08:00.001-06:00

Norman Chad on WSOP main event coverage from last Tuesday.

"They call him the Mad Genius, but I've never seen him win anything."

Made me laugh.

Tuesday Fun Day

2010-08-11T21:38:00.002-06:00

Played at Harrah's Tuesday. It is what I do on Tuesday's. Me and Slick and JM and sometimes Pat or P money go and play the $30 daily with all the old geezers. So far one of us has finished in the money every time but one. JM even chopped the win two weeks in a row. Anyhoo, I hit the first break about average then donked off with AQos after a raise and reraise. Knew he was huge, but I was short after losing a race to 55 and I wanted to play cash or get big. He flips KK. First two cards on the flop are an ace and a queen. The third...a king. Dead to two outs. No good.

I bought into a 1/2 table for $200. I had won $130 on craps before the tournament, so I was almost free rolling. I win a few pots. 99 wins after raise and c-bet. Then Slick gets sat at my table. All my cards die. Just vanish. Can't get a thing. Just junk for two hours. I do get 55 once and raise it to $10. The flop comes AQ2 with two hearts. There are three of us. Slick, myself and the button. Slick and the button have been sparing a lot. Slick, first to act, bet out real quick half the pot. I fold and the button thinks a bit and calls. The turn is the ten of diamonds. Slick bet out a little more than half the pot. The button calls quickly. The river is a 4 of spade. Slick bets half the pot. The button thinks and thinks. He has to have a big ace. Finally he mucks. He asks Slick to tell him he has 22's. I say naw, he had the flush draw with a gut shot straight draw. Slick turns to me, the button cannot see his eyes, and his eyes are wide open. I totally nailed it. He told me later he had KJ of hearts. He wanted to know how I knew. I said I play with you weekly. It was pretty sweet. I did not know it when I made the fold, but as the hand progressed, and I worked it in my head, it became obvious. Like a light bulb in the dark.

I played for a while and donked off chips. Just trying to get in cheap and hit. Nothing. Even hands I did not play were missing. We decide to leave when the blinds get to us. I look down and 88 utg plus one. I call. Three more calls and the button raises it to $10. I call as do two others. The flop comes 7s 5s 4d. I have an over pair and the gutty. The table checks to the button who fires the pot. Something about the bet seemed fishy to me. I had $70 on top of the raise, so I nutted up and pushed. Slick folds, and the other dude tanks. He finally folds A7. The button instant calls. We do not show as the board comes 9s. Not a great card, but I did pick up the straight flush draw. River is the 9d. Did not mean much on the whole. I flip over since I was called. He tilts his cards up and looks at them and looks at mine. I am either good or about to get horrible slow rolled. Finally he flashes a 6 for the OESD and mucks. It put me up about $80 for the session. I thought he probably had 66 or maybe A6. Slick thought he had 67. Hmmm. I played my last hand and split. Nice to go from over a hundred down to up just like that. (I had min reloaded along the way)

At home, my AC is out. It is 87 inside and 75 outside. Having a hard time cooling the house down. Sucks. 102 tomorrow. New AC on Friday. Gonna put that baby all the way down to 69. Figure I have 3 days of electricity to spend. Gonna be sweet.

Got Drawn out On

2010-08-11T08:12:00.003-06:00

It did not hold. The AC died yesterday. Have to wait till Friday to get it replaced. Excessive heat warning until Friday night. The wife just left on a business trip for two days. Lucky her. The kids and I are sweltering.

Just lost a big hand with AA.

HOT

2010-08-09T23:47:00.002-06:00

It is hot here in the heartland. It was over 100 today. The forecast says more of the same for the coming week. I can handle the heat. My compressor cannot. I am listening to music, playing a poker tournament and listening to my AC unit die. Or more to the point, the fan. It whines and squeaks. I called a guy who drives a truck that advertises his prowess around such units. He came. He inspected. The unit ran perfectly for him. He did say that it was old. So a fix means replacing all the lines, condenser unit, and compressor. Just $2500. Walking around money really. Right? Calling tomorrow. Getting it swapped. The old beast is LOUD. I want that whisper one. You know, the one that barely makes a sound and is super efficient. That one. I could replace that fan on the old one, but that would be wasting money.

The AC is AA and it's all in against 78s. Two to that suit flop with an OESD. Just hold baby. HOLD!!!!!